Class 
Book 




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COPSfRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



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THE 
SPLENDID WAYFARING 

The story of the exploits and adventures of Jedediah 
Smith and his comrades, the Ashley-Henry men, 
discoverers and explorers of the great Central Route 
from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean 

1822—1831 



BY 

JOHN G. NEIHARDT, Litt.D. 

Author of "The Song of Three Friends," "The Song 
of Hugh Glass," "The Quest," etc. 



Jl3eto gcrtfe 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1920 

AU, rights reserved 






Copyright, 1920, 

By the macmillan company 



Set up and eloctrotyped. Published October, igao. 



OCT ?' 



©CU601147 



TO 

MY GOOD COMRADE 

JULIUS T. HOUSE 



PREFACE 

The student of American History in our schools 
Is given an opportunity to become well acquainted 
with the early explorations of the Great North- 
west and the Great Southwest; he is taught little 
or nothing of the real discoverers of the central 
route from the Missouri River to the Pacific 
Ocean. This Is due to the fact that, until very 
recently, our historians have been concerned too 
much with governmental acts, too little with the 
activities of the people themselves. The official 
explorers of the Northwest and the Southwest 
were actually pioneers; but the official exploration 
of the great central region beyond the Rockies 
was undertaken twenty years after the actual dis- 
coverers and explorers had set out from St. Louis. 
Considering the fact that it was by way of the 
central route that the tide of migration flowed 
across the Rockies and possessed the Far West, 
it would seem that the discovery and exploration 
of that route might now, at last, be given some 
attention in our schools. 

In the following pages I have told the story of 
that body of adventurers who, from 1822 to 
1829, opened the way for the expansion of our 

vii 



viii Preface 

nation beyond the Missouri. I have made Jede- 
diah Smith the central figure of my story, for of 
all explorers of the Great West he was in many 
ways the most remarkable, though, heretofore, 
our school children have not even heard his name. 
In order to give the student a sense of the con- 
tinuity of history, I have begun my narrative with 
a brief account of the movement across the Alle- 
ghenies and down the Ohio River after the Revo- 
lutionary War; and I have suggested the relation 
of westward expansion in America to the whole 
race movement from the beginning. 

The general mood of a given period is quite 
as important a part of history as are the bare 
facts. Therefore, by way of giving a more vivid 
picture of the times, I have taken the liberty to 
supply minor details in Chapters I, II, IV, V, 
VIII, IX, and X; but in every case I have done 
this strictly in accordance with the recorded ex- 
periences of contemporaries in similar situations. 
Also, as a matter of convenience in shaping the 
narrative, I have assumed that Smith went to St. 
Louis in the spring of 1822. There are good rea- 
sons for believing that this may be correct, though 
the year of his arrival there is unknown. In 
every other respect the narrative faithfully fol- 
lows the chain of facts as found in the authentic 
sources. 

Though I have drawn upon a considerable num- 
ber of sources, as will be seen by consulting the 



Preface ix 

bibliography at the back of the book, I am espe- 
cially indebted to Prof. Dale's admirable work, 
" The Ashley-Smith Explorations," which not only 
clears up some important points in the history of 
the period, but presents for the first time certain 
recently discovered documents bearing upon the 
expeditions of William H. Ashley and Jedediah 
Strong Smith. I must also acknowledge the fol- 
lowing debts: to Mr. Doane Robinson, secretary 
of the Historical Society of South Dakota, who, 
twelve years ago, revealed to me the wonderful 
life-story of Jedediah Smith, and who has been 
most generous in furthering my work; to Miss 
Stella M. Drumm, librarian of the Missouri His- 
torical Society, and to Mr. William E. Connelley, 
secretary of the State Historical Society of Kan- 
sas, who have kindly furnished me with copies of 
source material placed in their keeping; to Mr. 
Frederick S. Dellenbaugh for permission to use 
pictures from his " Canyon Voyage "; and to Mr. 
Enos A. Mills, Dr. George Wharton James and 
Prof. S. H. Knight for photographs. 

John G. Neihardt. 
Bancroft, Nebraska, 
December, 19 19. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I Down the Ohio i 

II At St. Louis 24 

III Northbound with the Robins ... 35 

IV The Battle 48 

V The Express to Henry 61 

VI The Two Parties Unite .... 75 

VII The Leavenworth Campaign ... 85 

VIII Westward by the Grand .... 98 

IX Jed Wrestles with Death . . . .116 

X The Ghost 127 

XI The First White Men Through 

South Pass 139 

XII Treasure and Trouble Therewith . 147 

XIII The Return 159 

XIV Ashley's Long Winter Trail . . .170 
XV Down Green River 186 

XVI The Rendezvous 196 

XVII Back to the States 209 

XVIII General Ashley Retires .... 220 

XIX The First Americans Overland to 

California 233 

XX Smith's Second Journey .... 257 

XXI The End of the Trail 274 

List of Sources 288 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

A Stampeding Buffalo Herd .... Frontispiece - 

l-AOINQ 
PAQB 

Map of Trans-Mississippi Country i6 '■ 

A Scene on Weber River 33 • 

Shoshone Falls, Snake River 33 

Entrance to Flaming Gorge Canyon, Green River . 48 " 

Long's Peak 48 " 

Mouth of the Sweetwater 65 

The Mohave Desert 80 

A Scene on the Virgin River 80 

Louis Vasquez • • 97 

Robert Campbell 97 

Dr. John McLoughlin 97 

The Great Divide Basin II2 " 

The Three Forks of the Missouri River . . . .112 * 
A Four-column Caravan Bound for Santa Fe . .129 
Fink Shooting the Tincup from Carpenter's Head . 129 

San Gabriel Mission I44 " 

A Scene on Snake River , . .161 - 

Cordelling a Keelboat 176 '=/ 



Illustrations 

rACINQ 
PAGE 

Jackson Hole 192 

Last Page of the Articles of Agreement Whereby 
Ashley's Interests in the Mountains were Trans- 
ferred to Smith, Jackson and Sublette . . . 207 - 

Last Page of the Rogers Journal, Written at the 
Camp on the Umpqua the Day Before the Mas- 
sacre in which the Writer was Killed . . . 225 ' 

Letter from Hugh Glass Relative to the Death of 

Gardner 240 

Map of the West from Carey's Atlas, Philadelphia, 

1818 256^ 



THE SPLENDID WAYFARING 



DOWN THE OHIO 

AN early April dawn was whitening over the 
vast forests of Kentucky and Ohio, and here 
and there, from an occasional log cabin in a clear- 
ing, hearth-smoke began to rise. Out of the dim 
wilderness to the east the broad Ohio River, now 
swollen with the spring floods, came swirling down 
past the thriving little city of Cincinnati set 
staunchly on a sunward slope. Already the city 
had awakened; but no auto horns honked, no trol- 
ley gongs clanged in the streets, and no whistle of 
an approaching locomotive disturbed the hush of 
the great valley. No railroad trains would ar- 
rive that day, nor for many a day thereafter. 
Though steamboats were now no longer uncom- 
mon, yet the bulk of traffic was still carried on in 
a primitive way. This proud little metropolis of 
an immense teritory, fabulously rich In all those 
material things that contribute to the happiness of 
men, knew nothing of telephones and telegraphs, 
or of any of those conveniences without which an 
American city can no longer be conceived. And 



2 The Splendid Wayfaring 

yet, during the day that was coming, as for a gen- 
eration past, this bustHng town would play its role 
in one of the most tremendous adventures that our 
race has experienced. 

What race and what adventures? 

In order to suggest the answer to this ques- 
tion, let us begin at the beginning, far back In the 
dim centuries, scanning as rapidly as possible what 
is, for us of the Western World, the greatest of 
all stories. Only thus can we sense the magnitude 
and significance of what we are about to witness; 
for there are no divisions in time, and history Is 
to be conceived, not as a succession of periods 
limited by dates on the calendar, but rather as 
one continuous process. Well then, thousands of 
years ago the Aryan or Indo-European Race, 
dwelling In the valley of the Euphrates, was seized 
with the wanderlust. A portion of this people 
turned toward India. With those we are not here 
concerned. A portion turned toward the setting 
sun, and so began a journey that should continue 
for thousands of years and thousands of miles, 
to reach our own Pacific Coast during the 19th 
century. Those westering peoples were our an- 
cestors; American history properly begins with 
them; and we today are the rightful heirs of all 
the heroism and beauty and wisdom that have been 
developed in their age-long pilgrimage. We are 
what we are because of what they experienced. 

Now as those ancestors of ours pressed west- 



Down the Ohio 3 

ward, they underwent many changes, owing to 
varying physical environment, to contact with 
other peoples, and to that evolution of ideas which 
is the natural result of experience in meeting the 
difficulties of life. As we follow them in their 
westward migration, we know them under the 
guise of many nationalities, speaking as many dif- 
ferent tongues, yet the main line of descent runs 
clear. We might liken the ancient Aryan spirit to 
a prairie fire driven by an east wind out of Mes- 
opotamia and destined to burn across a world. 
Now it flared up in Persia, and the gloom of the 
Past is still painted with that flare. Now it was 
a white radiance in Greece, the clear illumina- 
tion of which still guides the feet of men. Now 
it burned ruddily in Rome, spread around the 
Mediterranean, and became as a golden noonday 
to all the known world. Then it drove northward 
and lit Europe with a succession of illuminations. 
Now its glowing center was in the Empire of 
Charlemagne, now in Spain under the great Philip, 
now in France under the Grand Monarch, now in 
England under Elizabeth. Though whipped by 
cross-winds and freakish gusts, changing ever by 
that upon which it fed, yet it was ever the same 
flame, ever yearning westward — in its rear the 
ashes of fallen empires, in its van the rising and 
falling light of what was yet to be. At last, borne 
as a torch by the discoverers and explorers of the 
Western Hemisphere, that flame was rekindled in 



4 The Splendid Wayfaring 

our own Colonial history. Up the Mississippi 
from the Gulf of Mexico came the Spaniards. 
Up the St. Lawrence forged the French. West- 
ward across the Alleghenies and down the Ohio 
went the English and the Germans and the Dutch 
and the Irish. And all these scions of an ancient 
race were to meet and mingle in the great central 
valley, pushing on and on by river route and 
prairie trail and mountain pass to the waters of the 
Pacific. Here in the western continent the wan- 
derings of the widely dispersed peoples should end 
at last, and they were destined to become again 
one people. 

Thus it was that, on that April morning in 
1822, the frontier city of Cincinnati was sharing 
in a great adventure — no less an adventure than 
the conquest of a continent. For a generation 
past, yonder river had been more than a stream 
of water. It had become a veritable stream of 
men, urged westward by the home-hunger and the 
lure of wealth — impulses no less elemental than 
that which now flung the spring-floods seaward. 

That morning at the city's water-front a clutter 
of boats, moored along the wagon-rutted landing, 
made clear in what manner the stream of men 
would flow that day. And what a variety of wa- 
ter craft! There lay an ungainly side-wheeled 
steamboat, already belching smoke. Nearby 
was a stately barge, as big as an Atlantic 
schooner of those days, requiring at least twenty- 



Down the Ohio 5 

five men to work it up-stream. Yonder was a 
keelboat, long, slender, gracefully shaped, capa- 
ble of bearing thirty tons of freight and formed 
in such a way that it might easily be poled, towed 
by the cordelle, or driven under sail, when the 
wind was favorable, over the shallow waters of 
the summer season. Here, again, was a Ken- 
tucky flatboat, commonly known as a " broad- 
horn." About fifteen feet wide and seventy-five 
feet long, it would carry at least sixty tons. It 
was like an ark adventuring toward some Ararat 
in the country of the sunset, for it bore a whole 
family with all its worldly goods — geese, chick- 
ens, horses, cows, sheep, pigs! And there were 
Allegheny skifts, carrying from eight to twelve 
tons; pirogues, hollowed out of enormous trees; 
common skiffs, dugouts, and various nondescript 
boats displaying a whimsical combination of well 
known varieties. 

Now there is a bustling, and a babble of voices, 
along the landing and among the cluttered craft. 
Neighborly messages are flung from deck to deck 
— pioneers of Kentucky hailing pioneers of the 
Mohawk Valley; Virginians and Pennsylvanians 
discussing hopes with adventurers from the 
Maumee or Sandusky Bay or Green River; trad- 
ers with Yankee notions, tinware, pork, flour, 
hemp, tobacco, agricultural implements and Mon- 
ongahela whisky for sale, question each other as 
to their cargoes and destinations among the Span- 



6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

ish and French settlements of the Mississippi. 
And how oddly clad these people are ! Every 
member of yonder family on the Kentucky broad- 
horn Is dressed In llnsey, and It Is a safe guess 
that the mother, aided, perhaps, by the eldest 
daughter, has scutched, heckled and spun the flax, 
carded and spun the wool, woven and dyed the 
cloth from which these garments were made. 
Many of the men wear the hunting shirt, a large- 
sleeved loose frock reaching half way between hip 
and knee, open In front and wide enough to lap 
over a foot or more when closed with the belt that 
Is tied In the back. A large cape, fringed, per- 
haps, with ravelled cloth of a gaudy color, falls 
across the shoulders. Some of these shirts are 
made of llnsey, some of linen, some of dressed 
deer skin. Breeches of buckskin, fringed at the 
side seams, are common; and there are more moc- 
casins among these adventurers than shoes. 

The women, some of whom, no doubt, are des- 
tined to become the great grandmothers of some 
of the proudest families of the West, have set off 
their rude homespun garments with no more con- 
spicuous adornment than a small hand-woven 
handkerchief tied about the neck. Some are now 
going barefoot, some wear moccasins, some the 
coarsest of shoes. Few are the " store clothes " 
to be noted among these people; and Indeed, many 
of them, reared In the backwoods, had perhaps 
never seen a store until they came to stare at the 



Down the Ohio 7 

'* sights " In Cincinnati, a huge metropolis to them. 

Suddenly above the babble a boat horn strikes 
up a merry lilt. Others join in; and, far away, 
like spirit bugles out of the dim past of the race, 
still sounding the westward advance, the echoes 
sing on among the wooded hills. With a roar 
from her whistle the steamboat backs out, swings 
round, and, thrusting her stubborn nose Into the 
swirl, pushes on toward Pittsburgh, snoring like an 
asthmatic sleeper. The cumbrous barge, poled 
by a dozen brawny men, moves slowly outward, 
feels the clutch of the current, and sweeps away. 
The ark-like broadhorn follows, while, startled by 
the shouting of the men and the blaring of the 
horns, the geese and chickens and sheep and cows 
and pigs and horses add each their own peculiar 
cries to the general din. And, indeed, why should 
they not be heard? Have they not shared as 
comrades In the age-long adventure of the race? 

Skiffs, pirogues and dugouts are putting off. 
The keelboat's line is taken In; the patron, as the 
helmsman Is called. Is at the wheel ; the crew makes 
ready to push off and join the flotilla, now swirl- 
ing rapidly down the stream. The last passenger 
is going aboard — a slender, dark-haired young 
man of middle height, with an erect, alert bearing 
and a keenness of the eye that betokens resolution 
and intelligence. He must be well under twenty- 
five years of age. His clothes are of homespun 
and he carries upon his back a " plunder bag '* 



8 The Splendid Wayfaring 

doubtless containing all his worldly wealth. Let 
us follow him; for though yonder French boat- 
man with his scarlet sash seems by far the more 
important person of the two, this young fellow, 
with the bag at his back, is fated to become one 
of the great torch-bearers of the race; and within 
nine years he shall have pushed far in advance 
of the oncoming human tide, discovered a main 
route of travel through the Western wilderness 
to the Pacific Ocean, encountered many perils, and 
died the death of a hero, leaving as a legacy to 
his countrymen the memory of his years, as rich 
as they were few. 

Now the keelboat was in midstream, and soon 
the town was lost to view around a bend. Sit- 
ting on his " plunder bag " on the forward deck, 
the young man gazed dreamily at the two green 
worlds that flowed by him — a vision of universal 
fruitfulness. The magnificent beeches and syca- 
mores and cottonwoods along the shore were in 
full leaf. Red birds flickered with mellow whis- 
tlings in and out among the dense foliage. Now 
and then a flock of paroquets shocked some green 
silence with eruptions of color and noise. Col- 
umns of smoke arose from occasional cabins in 
some hidden clearing beyond the dense wood that 
fringed the river. Ax-strokes, begetting multi- 
tudes of echoes, told where some lusty backwoods- 
man was contributing his share of labor to the 
making of a new world. Dogs barked far away, 



Down the Ohio 9 

and echo dogs answered in the golden hush. 

During the morning they had passed the mouth 
of the Great Miami on their right, and shortly 
afterward, the village of Lawrenceburg. Now 
and then a bend in the river revealed a patch of 
cleared ground wherein a barefooted plowman 
drove his team of oxen among the stumps; and 
then there arose a running fire of question and 
answer between the boats and the shore. The 
colloquy might run somewhat as follows : 

"Hello, the boat!" 

" Hello, the plow! Have you any potatoes to 
sell the boat?" 

'' None. Have you any whisky aboard the 
boat?" 

" Plenty." 

'* Well, I'll trade potatoes for whisky." 

" What do you ask for your potatoes? " 

'' A dollar a bushel." 

" Too much." 

" Well, I will let you have a bushel of potatoes 
for a gallon of whisky." 

The boats move on. 

''A half gallon!" 

The voice grows dimmer with increasing dis- 
tance. 

"A quart!" 

Or perhaps the conversation between boatmen 
and settler might call forth what passed for Yan- 
kee wit, as for instance : 



lo The Splendid Wayfaring 

Curious settler: "Where you from?" 

Facetious boatman: "Redstone." 

"What's your lading?" 

" Millstones." 

" What's the captain's name? " 

" Whetstone." 

" Where you bound? " 

" Limestone." ^ 

Sometimes, it is said, such dialogs between land 
and water developed Into an exchange of black- 
guardly epithets, ending, as like as not, in the 
landing of the boatman and a brisk fight on shore. 
Nor should this greatly surprise us; for always at 
the lip of the advancing human flood the brawling 
and turbulent spirits are sure to be found; and 
Indeed the race owes much to Its wild and reck- 
less types, for from their number have been re- 
cruited the rank and file of many a daring expedi- 
tion Into the wilderness, to the end that the way 
might be made clear for the home-makers. The 
race advances through its exceptions; that is to 
say, through those who refuse to think or act In 
accordance with established custom. Those, 
whose departures from what has been accepted as 
right prove at last to be advantageous to the 
race, become the great men and are justly hon- 
ored. The others are overcome and forgotten. 
At one end of this scale of human exceptions we 
find the saint and seer; at the other end, the 

1 Flint. " Recollections of the Past Ten Years." 



Down the Ohio ii 

criminal. Many of those turbulent spirits that 
were of the greatest value in the pioneering age 
would, if confined to the uncongenial environment 
of a modern industrial city, end their days in a 
penitentiary. 

The sun rose high above the drifting flock of 
boats and began the long descent of afternoon. 
Still the young man sat upon his *' plunder bag " 
or paced about the keelboat's deck, dreamily 
watching the rich bottom lands and rolling hills 
drift past. No wonder that he had little heart 
for entering into the gay spirit of his fellow travel- 
lers. He was leaving home, and there was some- 
thing inexorable about the swift and silent current 
that bore him farther and farther into a world 
unknown to him. And yet, there must have been 
a thrill in it all; for he had dreamed a daring 
dream of what a resolute young man might do 
in those vast, mysterious white spaces that then 
made up the greater portion of the map of the 
Trans-Missouri country. Doubtless, rivers and 
mountains and lakes had been waiting yonder for 
unknown ages for a white man to discover and 
name them ! Might he not prove to be that white 
man? And beyond those vast white spaces lay 
the Pacific Ocean and the country of the Span- 
iards! 

Seventeen years before, Lewis and Clark had 
pushed to the headwaters of the Missouri, across 
the mountains to the headwaters of the Columbia, 



12 The Splendid Wayfaring 

and down that river to the sea. But what of the 
way through the great country to the south? 
Who should find and plot it? 

The setting sun glowed across the broad flood 
ahead, and the full moon rose huge and red 
through the mists of the valley in the rear. It 
would be a white night; the high water made the 
river safe, and so the boats floated on into the 
deepening moony haze. Suppers were cooked 
and eaten. Then a squeaking fiddle struck up a 
familiar backwoods tune on board the Kentucky 
broadhorn. Soon a dance was in full swing there, 
and the young men and women from the other 
boats were putting off in skiffs to join the merry- 
making. Now and then bursts of song and shouts 
of laughter drowned out the clatter of heels and 
the shrill ecstasies of the racing fiddle. 

But the young man, whom we have been noting, 
showed no inclination to join the merrymakers. 
He had been reading a book by the lingering twi- 
light, until the dusk had blotted out the dog- 
eared pages. Then he had begun pacing up and 
down the deck, his head bowed, his hands clasped 
behind him; and, seen thus in the moonlight, he 
seemed more like an old man brooding upon the 
dead years, than a youth whose blood pulsed 
strongly with the lust of high adventure. By and 
by the patron at the helm, a sturdy old graybeard 
from the Monongahela, hailed him: 



Down the Ohio 13 

" What book, young man? One of them love 
yarns, I'll warrant! " 

'* I was reading the Great Book, sir." 

"Eh? — The Scriptures? A great book, in- 
deed; and them as be kicking their heels in the 
devil's wind yonder might better be reading of it. 
Where bound?" 

" To St. Louis." 

" What you calc'latc doing yonder? " 

" I shall enter the fur trade." 

*' Aye, and go far, I'll warrant; for I see you 
be one of them as knows where they're going, 
keeps a tight lip and goes there by the grace of 
God! That breed goes far. Most ain't rightly 
sure where they be bound and never gets there — 
like me. My beard's gray and I be n't there yet, 
and so I know. Who be you, where you from, 
and who's your folks? " 

Now even to the most taciturn and self-con- 
tained young man who is leaving home, that is 
likely to be a stimulating question, and the old 
patron got his answer. Our young hero's name 
was Jedediah Strong Smith. His father, Jede- 
diah Smith, a native of New Hampshire, had 
pushed westward into the Mohawk Valley with 
the first wave of emigration after the close of the 
Revolutionary War, and had settled in Chenango 
County, New York. There in the village of Bain- 
bridge, on June 24th, 1798, our hero was born. 



14 The Splendid Wayfaring 

But in spite of his large and growing family, the 
elder Smith had not long remained there, for the 
wanderlust of the race had been strong in him, 
and the lure of the sunset, that was to lead his 
son across the plains and mountains and deserts 
even to the waters of the Pacific, had led the 
father still farther to the west. For a few years 
the family had lived in Erie, Pennsylvania, and 
was now settled in Ashtabula, Ohio, with little 
prospect of moving any farther, for the children 
at home now numbered a baker's dozen. 

Though the chances for education in the coun- 
try of his childhood were slight in those days, 
Jed had been fortunate in making friends with a 
physician. Dr. Simons, who had given him the 
*' rudiments of an English education and a smat- 
tering of Latin," together with a love for the 
Scriptures and the fear of God. At the age of 
thirteen, Jed had begun to shift for himself, hav- 
ing secured a job as clerk on one of the freight 
boats of the Great Lakes. ^ Thus at an impres- 
sionable age he had come in close contact with 
the traders and trappers of the British fur com- 
panies; and the many stirring tales he had heard 
from those adventurers had determined the course 
of his life. He too would brave the dangers of 
the wilderness! So now he was going to St. 
Louis, the great emporium of the American fur 
trade. 

iDale. "The Ashley-Smith Explorations." 



Down the Ohio 15 

The moon rose high, and still the old patron 
and the young adventurer talked of the Western 
Country, of St. Louis and of the bright prospects 
that the fur trade then offered to enterprising 
young men. At midnight the old man's watch 
ended, and another took the helm. Rolling them- 
selves in their blankets, the graybeard and the 
youth lay down upon the forward deck to sleep. 
By and by the sound of merrymaking on the 
broadhorn trailed away into a great silence; and 
all night long the shadowy helmsmen, guiding the 
black hulks through mysterious immensity, 
" sailed astonished amid stars." 

Boat horns called to the sleepers as the fleet 
drifted slowly out of the fading shadow into a 
new day. Once again neighborly voices were 
heard crying from deck to deck. The fleet was 
now drifting southwestwardly with the Indiana 
shore to starboard. Close on noon it passed the 
Kentucky River flowing bankfull out of the prime- 
val forest to the southeast. Here a rude flat- 
boat, that had been moored among the willows 
near the junction of the streams, put off and 
floated in among the other boats. It bore a large 
family with all its household goods, bound for 
the Wabash country — a fact which did not long 
remain a secret, for the meeting of pioneers in- 
volved no ceremony, and the father, who, with 
the aid of a lank, overgrown, frowsy-headed boy, 
guided his drifting home with a long sweep-oar at 



1 6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the stern, was at once subjected to a running fire 
of questions. 

The course of the river shifted to the north- 
west, then to the west, then to the south. Dusk 
came, the moon rose. All afternoon there had 
been much talk of the Falls of the Ohio, now some 
forty miles ahead, over which the fleet must pass. 
Those who were travelling that way for the first 
time naturally looked forward with dread to the 
fancied dangers of the passage, though the old- 
timers assured them that in high water there was 
nothing to fear. Nevertheless, in the wee hours 
of the morning, the boats put in to shore, there 
to await the dawn, that the falls might be passed 
in daylight. 

It was mid-forenoon when the lookout on the 
leading boat, then drifting near Louisville in 
waters as smooth as a lake, heard a deep roaring 
ahead. A cry of warning arose and spread over 
the fleet, dying out suddenly as the first boat 
rocked to the clutching swirl, leaped into a stretch 
of wildly agitated waters and shot out into the 
glassy quiet below. It was all over in a few min- 
utes; but when the boats once more drifted in 
the dozing calm, the laughter of relaxing dread 
and the pointless jests that were bandied from 
deck to deck told how tense those minutes had 
been. 

There was now no obstacle to fear in the 
whole course of the Ohio; and, favored by the 



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Down the Ohio 17 

moon, the fleet continued to drift by night as 
well as by day, save when an occasional rainstorm 
darkened the sky. Now and then a stop was 
made at some settlement for the purpose of trad- 
ing for supplies and getting acquainted. Some of 
the craft dropped out of the fleet at various points 
and others took their places. One day and night 
below the falls, they passed Blue River on their 
right. In three more days they saw Green River 
coming in out of Kentucky. Another day and 
night brought them to the mouth of the Wabash; 
and at noon of the following day they landed at 
Shawnee Town — an unpleasant looking little vil- 
lage, set upon low ground and now struggling with 
the flood waters. In spite of its appearance, how- 
ever. It was then, and had been for years, a place 
of some importance, owing to the salt deposits 
nearby, which furnished its chief article of com- 
merce, and to the fact that it had become an out- 
fitting point for the Mississippi trade. 

Here the keelboat which bore our hero took 
on nine French boatmen to aid in the difficult task 
of poling and cordelling from the mouth of the 
Ohio to St. Louis. 

Now the river broadened; the bluffs began to 
fall away; cultivated patches became less frequent; 
dismal stretches of swamp land, haunted by water 
fowl, were more and more common. To right 
and left the lofty forests stretched away with a 
regular surface like a vast green roof supported 



1 8 The Splendid Wayfaring 

by huge living columns rising out of the water. 
At rare intervals the solitary cabin of a wood 
cutter, set on piles or blocks to raise it above the 
inundation, served by contrast to make the scene 
more dismal. A day and night from Shawnee 
Town the mouth of the Cumberland was passed; 
and a half day later, the Tennessee. The next 
sunrise found them moored at the junction of the 
two great rivers. 

Yonder magnificent stream was the Mississippi; 
and young Smith, gazing upon it for the first time, 
doubtless felt something of awe and the sense of 
losing a friendly world made dear with old asso- 
ciations, that the ancient Phoenician mariners 
must have experienced at the Pillars of Hercules. 

Here at the delta speculators had once dreamed 
of founding a great commercial city, and a few 
houses had been raised on piles. But the dream 
had failed, and now the town was kept on a huge 
flatboat a hundred feet long, in which there were 
stores, liquor shops, gambling dens, and a motley 
population of miserable men and women — a trap 
of vice for the unwary. Here was the central 
point of the most extensive network of navigable 
rivers on the globe; a natural system of trans- 
portation that has not even now, at the end of the 
second decade of the twentieth century, been fully 
utilized to the advantage of mankind. Keelboats 
and flat-bottomed mackinaws, starting at this 
point, could ascend to the headwaters of the 



Down the Ohio 19 

Mississippi; to the Great Falls of the Missouri In 
sight of the Rocky Mountains; to Pompey's Pil- 
lar on the Yellowstone; to the State of New 
York by way of the Ohio River; up the Illinois 
and down the Chicago to the Great Lakes; up 
the Wabash and the Tennessee into the heart of 
the great forests; or, descending to the Red River 
of the South or the Arkansas, it was possible to 
penetrate the great prairie wilderness of the 
Southwest even to the Spanish country. 

Already the traffic that passed this point was 
immense, considering the undeveloped condition 
of the country. A short distance to the south, 
at the mouth of the Bayou, was the port of New 
Madrid; and there In a single spring day as many 
as a hundred boats had landed, laden with planks 
from the pine forests of southwestern New York; 
Yankee notions, corn in the ear, apples and po- 
tatoes from Ohio; pork, flour, whisky, hemp, to- 
bacco, bagging and bale rope from Kentucky; 
cotton from Tennessee; cattle and horses from 
Missouri and Illinois. Sometimes a number of 
these craft would be lashed together, thus forming 
a floating town several acres In extent; and brisk 
was the trade and merry the festivities that were 
carried on in such drifting communities. 

Now began the most difficult part of the voyage 
to St. Louis — a stretch of approximately two 
hundred miles against the full spring flood. The 
cordelle, or tow-line, swung from the masthead 



20 The Splendid Wayfaring 

of the keelboat, was flung ashore, and a dozen 
boatmen, toiling tandem with the line across their 
shoulders, began the long pull northward, while 
the helmsman at the stern and a polesman at the 
bow kept the craft well out in the stream. Tim- 
othy Flint, an early traveller by keelboat up this 
difficult stretch, has left us the following general 
remarks regarding the labors and dangers attend- 
ant upon such a voyage in those days: *' Owing 
to the character of the river and the numberless 
impediments in it and on its banks, the cordelle is 
continually entangling among the snags and saw- 
yers between the boat and the shore, and has 
often to be thrown over small trees and carried 
around larger ones. Sometimes you are impeded 
by masses of trees that have lodged against saw- 
yers. At other times you find a considerable 
portion of the shore, including a surface of acres, 
that has fallen into the river with all its trees 
upon it. Just at the edge of these trees the cur- 
rent is so heavy as to be almost impassable. It 
is beside the question to think of forcing the boat 
up against the main current anywhere, except with 
an uncommon number of hands. Therefore, any 
impediment near the shore must either be sur- 
mounted or the river crossed to avoid it. It 
often happens that the boat, with no small labor, 
and falling down stream with the strength of the 
current, crosses to avoid such difficulties and finds 
equal ones on the opposite shore. Sometimes you 



Down the Ohio 21 

are obliged to make your way among the trunks 
of the trees, the water boiling round your boat 
like a mill race. Then if the boat swings, you are 
instantly carried back and perhaps strike the snags 
below you, and your boat Is staved. I do not re- 
member to have traversed this river in any con- 
siderable trip, without having heard of some fatal 
disaster to a boat, or having seen the dead body 
of some boatman, recognized by the red flannel 
shirt which they generally wear. The numbers of 
carcasses of boats, lying at the points or thrown 
up high and dry on the wreck heaps, demonstrate 
how many are lost on this wild and, as the boat- 
men call it, wicked river." ^ 

All day long, under such dlfl^cultles, with brief 
but frequent breathing spells, the crew fought Its 
way up stream; and always the hardest task was 
met with song, for the French boatmen were fa- 
mous singers, peculiarly gifted with the genius 
for light-heartedness. Often It became necessary 
for all, save the helmsman, to take a hand In the 
tense struggle with the sinewy current; and during 
the fifteen days from the mouth of the Ohio to 
St. Louis, young Smith learned much of up-stream 
travel that was soon to stand him in good stead. 

But however arduous the long days might be, 
the evenings were a delight. For then, with a 
campfire roaring under some spreading tree, the 
boatmen would vie with each other in recounting 

1 '* Recollections of the Past Ten Years." 



22 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the adventures that had befallen them. Some had 
been In the Upper Missouri River country, three 
thousand miles away, and had heard the Great 
Falls singing thunderously to the empty spaces. 
Others had penetrated the forest wilderness above 
the Falls of St. Anthony. Still others had reached 
the Spanish country by way of the Red River or 
the Arkansas. One had been to Santa Fe and 
*' high-walled " Taos, and he remembered weird 
tales of deserted prehistoric cities in the moun- 
tain fastnesses beyond the Spanish Peaks. An- 
other had been at the headwaters of the Yellow- 
stone and seen Colter's Hell — a vast patch of 
earth where the good God was still at work amidst 
primeval fire and steam and brimstone, and as 
this man talked, some smiled incredulously, for he 
seemed as one who lies blithely for his own amaze- 
ment. And perhaps he did; perhaps they all did 
in some degree ! 

Always at the first peep of day the battle with 
the river began again. They passed the turbu- 
lent waters between the Grand Tower and the 
Devil's Oven. The Cornice Rock dropped be- 
hind them, and the perilous point called the Syca- 
more Root became an unpleasant memory. Now 
they toiled slowly past the mouth of the Kaskas- 
kia, upon which, a few miles inland, stood an im- 
portant old town of the same name — a pleasant 
village, and proud to remember that it had once 
entertained the great friend of Liberty, Lafayette. 



Down the Ohio 23 

Now the whitewashed mud walls and the wooden 
crosses of St. Genevieve were seen on the Mis- 
souri side, a mile up the little creek called Ga- 
boureau. To the eastward were the rich alluvial 
lands of the " American Bottom," and there the 
scattered farmsteads of the petits paysans, or 
small planters, made the landscape pleasant. 
More days of gruelling labor, and they saw the 
shot towers of Herculaneum set high on the 
bluffs to the west. Past the mouth of the Mara- 
mec they forged slowly; past the thriving villages 
of Carondelet and Cahokla. Then, at last, fif- 
teen days after they had left the mouth of the 
Ohio, they saw the city of St. Louis rising gradu- 
ally from the water's edge up the flanks of the 
westward bluffs; and at a distance it was like a 
seated throng viewing from a spacious amphi- 
theatre the pageant of the westering peoples ! 



II 

AT ST. LOUIS 

WHEN Jededlah Smith first walked the 
streets of St. Louis, the town was nearly 
sixty years old, and its motley population of Span- 
ish, French and Americans numbered somewhat 
less than five thousand. Though its advantageous 
position near the central point of a vast system 
of waterways had made it an important settlement 
from the time of its founding, yet it had shown 
little progress until after that day in March, 
1804, when, in the course of twenty-four hours, it 
had flown in succession the flags of Spain, France 
and the United States in token of the passing 
sovereignty of the great territory of Louisiana. 
Shortly thereafter Lewis and Clark had under- 
taken their famous exploring expedition to the 
mouth of the Columbia, and the influx of Ameri- 
cans had begun. The Yankee spirit soon trans- 
formed the general aspect of the old town. 
Whereas, before, most of the houses were frame 
structures daubed with mud and whitewashed, 
or built of stone in the rough and coated with 
mortar, brick houses had begun to appear, until 

24 



At St. Louis 25 

in 1 8 19, as a traveller of the time informs us, 
*' lines of buildings containing handsome and spa- 
cious city houses " were to be seen — " houses 
that would not have disgraced Philadelphia." ^ 
In 18 1 7 the first steamboat, the Pike, arrived, and 
in 1 8 19 the Independence made the trip to Frank- 
lin and back — the first power boat to sail the 
Missouri River. During the same year, the 
Western Engineer, bearing the exploring party of 
Major Long, ascended to a point near the present 
city of Omaha. But, though the development of 
steamboat navigation continued steadily from that 
time on, it was not until the year 1831 that steam- 
boats began to ascend the Missouri as far as the 
mouth of the Yellowstone, and all traffic on the 
upper reaches of the Missouri was still by keel- 
boats and mackinaws. 

After the transfer of Louisiana to the United 
States, the fur trade, which had been the chief 
industry of the town from the beginning, had 
soon increased in volume as a result of American 
enterprise. On March 12th, 181 1, the Overland 
Astorians, under the command of W. P. Hunt, 
had left St. Louis, bound for the mouth of the 
Columbia, where they expected to join forces with 
a sea expedition that had left New York harbor 
on the ship Tonquin early in September of the 
previous year for the long and hazardous voyage 
around the Horn. The tale of the Astorians, as 

1 Flint. "Recollections," etc. 



26 The Splendid Wayfaring 

told by Washington Irving, Is one of the master- 
pieces of American Literature. 

During the war of 1812 the fur trade had de- 
clined, and though in the year 18 19 five companies 
of some importance were operating from St. 
Louis, the chief of these being the Missouri Fur 
Company, headed by the veteran Spanish trader, 
Manuel Lisa, yet none of these was doing a profit- 
able business. 

However, Jed had arrived at a most auspicious 
time — just when the tide, having reached its low- 
est ebb, had begun to turn. The great Manuel 
Lisa, who had for many years operated on the 
Upper Missouri and Yellowstone, had died two 
years before and had been succeeded by Joshua 
Pilcher as head of the Missouri Fur Company, 
which, however, was then nearing the end of its 
history. In 1821 Pilcher had established a new 
trading post at the mouth of the Bighorn; and 
but a few weeks before Smith's arrival, the Com- 
pany had sent out a party of 180 trappers under 
Jones and Immel, bound for the Upper Missouri 
country. Though successful at the start, this ex- 
pedition was doomed to meet disaster at the hands 
of the Blackfeet near the Forks of the Missouri, 
and its two leaders were never to return. 

It is not in keeping with our purpose to follow 
here the falHng fortunes of the old Missouri Fur 
Company, though the bare factual story of that 
organization Is packed with the precious stuff of 



At St. Louis 27 

which great epics are made. What does concern 
our purpose is a brief paragraph that had ap- 
peared in the Missouri Republican for March 
20th, 1822, less than two months before the 
arrival of our hero. It ran as follows: 

TO ENTERPRISING YOUNG MEN 

The subscriber wishes to engage one hundred young 
men to ascend the Missouri River to its source, there to 
be employed for one, two or three years. For particulars 
enquire of Major Andrew Henry, near the lead mines in 
the County of Washington, who will ascend with, and 
command, the party; or of the subscriber near St. Louis. 
(Signed) William H. Ashley. 

The names there given could not but inspire 
the greatest confidence among the adventurous 
young spirits of that time and place. Major 
Henry, born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania, dur- 
ing the early part of the Revolutionary War, had 
descended the Ohio in his middle twenties. He 
was one of the incorporators of the Missouri Fur 
Company in 1809, and in the spring and summer 
of that year had led an expedition up the Missouri 
to the Three Forks, where a trading post had 
been established. Driven thence by the terrible 
Blackfeet, he had crossed the Continental Divide 
and built a fort on what has since been called 
Henry's Fork of the Snake River, thus being the 
first American trader to operate west of the 
Rockies. Having spent there the winter of 



28 The Splendid Wayfaring 

1810-11, Henry, finding this position also ex- 
tremely difficult, If not Impossible, to hold against 
the Indians, had returned to St. Louis during the 
following summer. For ten years now he had 
been engaged in lead mining, and had come to be 
known as "Andrew Henry of the Mines"; but 
the stories of his adventures beyond the Great 
Divide still passed from mouth to mouth, and we 
may be sure that they had lost nothing of wonder 
in the passing. 

Though William Henry Ashley had not yet 
ventured into the wilderness, yet his name had 
become one to conjure with. Born in Powhatan 
County, Virginia, in 1778, he had settled in St. 
Louis in 1802, where he seems very soon to have 
won prominence. He was made Captain of the 
Missouri Militia in 18 13, Colonel in 18 19, and 
was now General. Tw^o years before, he had 
been elected Lieutenant Governor of the State, 
but recently admitted to the Union. 

It is not surprising that these illustrious names, 
together with the new spirit of adventure that 
was in the air, should have brought a ready re- 
sponse to the advertisement above quoted. 
Within a fortnight the one hundred young men 
had been enrolled, " many of whom," as a local 
paper remarked at the time, " had relinquished 
the most respectable employments and circles of 
society " for the dangers and hardships of wilder- 
ness life. And what men they were! Fate seems 



At St, Louis 29 

just then to have been in a specially artistic mood, 
bent upon plotting their story on an epic scale; 
to this end choosing the most heroic spirits of an 
heroic region, dooming them to wanderings that 
should make those of Odysseus and i^neas seem 
mere pleasure jaunts, preparing amazing adven- 
tures for them to encounter, mighty deeds that 
they should do, and, for many, strange and tragic 
ends. 

On April 15th, 1822, some three weeks before 
Jed Smith, their future comrade and leader, had 
set foot upon the St. Louis landing, these hundred 
men with two keelboats loaded with trapping sup- 
plies and goods for the Indian trade, had begun 
the long ascent of the Missouri under the leader- 
ship of Major Henry. General Ashley had ac- 
companied them. Intending to ascend to the mouth 
of the Yellowstone and to return to the States in 
the fall. The first objective of the expedition 
was the Three Forks of the Missouri, where, 
as Rumor had it, " existed a wealth of furs not 
surpassed by the mines of Peru." From thence 
trapping parties would work the creeks and rivers 
on both sides of the Great Divide; and, if cir- 
cumstances should prove favorable, the party 
would later move on down the trail of Lewis and 
Clark even to the mouth of the Columbia. 

One can easily imagine what must have been 
Jed's regret upon hearing everywhere the eager 
talk about the two great expeditions that had so 



30 The Splendid Wayfaring 

recently started for the mountains. If he had 
only come a month earlier, he might even now be 
far up the river In pursuit of his dream. But 
perhaps It was just as well after all. With his ex- 
perience as a clerk on the lake boats of the British 
fur traders, he found no difficulty In getting em- 
ployment In an office of one of the St. Louis com- 
panies, where he might have the opportunity of 
becoming familiar with American methods of busi- 
ness. Nor was his great dream Idle during the 
long summer that followed. In any tavern of the 
town one might meet old Spanish and French 
veterans of the wilderness, some of whom, no 
doubt, had been with Lisa at the Three Forks; 
some with Henry beyond the Rockies; and some 
must have known the Spanish country and been to 
Santa Fe. Many were the tales of Indian fights, 
hairbreadth escapes, and well nigh Incredible suf- 
ferings from hunger and thirst that these would 
tell, providing they were first well warmed with 
the liquor of their liking. 

Little by little Jed was able to pick up much 
of what seemed to be fairly dependable geographi- 
cal Information regarding the Great Northwest 
and the Great Southwest, all of which he carefully 
noted on a crude map of the period. But there 
was a vast triangular space, with its apex some- 
where In the Upper Platte region, one leg extend- 
ing to the Columbia's mouth and the other reach- 
ing out toward the Gulf of California, that re- 



At St. Louis 31 

malned white In spite of his Inquiries. Now and 
then some old-timer, whose creative faculty had 
been somewhat overstimulated, would remember 
that he had once met a man whose name he did 
not recall, who had heard from someone much 
about that interior country. Nevertheless, no in- 
formation was forthcoming that Jed might record 
within that immense blank triangle — the country 
of his dream. And so, during the summer of 
1822, the dream was nurtured with mystery and 
grew mighty. 

Nor was Jed the only dreamer in St. Louis. 
It was an era of dreaming, for the lure of easy 
wealth was in the air and had fastened like an 
enchantment upon all men. One had only to get 
far enough away from the States to find, in inex- 
haustible quantities and with all the circumstances 
of romance, the means for realizing one's wildest 
dream. Somewhere out yonder all the streams 
swarmed with beaver, the price of which was ris- 
ing rapidly. The fur-fever was raging now, just 
as the gold-fever would rage a little over a quar- 
ter of a century later, and after that the home- 
stead-fever. In its issue for September 17th, the 
Intelligencer of St. Louis published an article 
in which the following paragraph occurred: 
'' Those formerly engaged in the trade have in- 
creased their capital and extended their enter- 
prises; many new firms have engaged in it and 
others are preparing to do so. It is computed 



32 The Splendid Wayfaring 

that a thousand men, chiefly from this place, are 
now employed on the waters of the Missouri and 
half that number on the upper Mississippi." 

Men were in a mood for hearing big stories 
that summer and fall. In the absence of reports 
from the upper country. Rumor worked overtime; 
and it seemed that nearly every able-bodied man 
Jed met had set his heart upon " going to the 
mountains " next year. Then one day during 
mid-October came what seemed to be unqualified 
corroboration of the wildest rumors. In the 
golden autumn doze a fleet of rude mackinaws, un- 
der the command of Captain Perkins of the Mis- 
souri Fur Company, came drifting down from the 
mouth of the Missouri, and tied up at the St. 
Louis landing. They had made the dangerous 
trip from the upper waters of the far off Yellow- 
stone, and they were laden with costly beaver 
packs. Twenty-four thousand dollars' worth of 
fur! The news of their coming had travelled 
across country from St. Charles on the Missouri, 
and all St. Louis, it seemed, was crowded along 
the water front to welcome this Jason and his 
crew returning with the Golden Fleece. Gaunt 
with toil and privations, long-haired and bewhis- 
kered, bronzed with the sun and wind of the 
wilderness, and clad in savage garb, these men 
were received as conquerors are received. Bells 
rang in all the steeples, guns roared up and down 
the river front, dogs barked, men shouted and 




Photo by L. T. Walter 
A Scene on Weber River, which Ashley Mistook for the 
Buenaventura 



- ,j3-';'i»'-,- 





Shoshone Falls, Snake River 



Photo by Kopac 



At St. Louis 33 

sang. Far into the night the celebration con- 
tinued. Bonfires flared. Liquor flowed freely. 
For this was more than a triumph (alas, the last!) 
of the old Missouri Fur Company. It was, in a 
sense, the first, though vicarious, triumph of many 
a dreamer's dream. 

A week later another and smaller party arrived 
in a mackinaw. It was General Ashley with a 
handful of men returning from the mouth of the 
Yellowstone. Once again St. Louis thronged the 
water front, but the manner of his reception, 
though hearty enough, no doubt, lacked something 
of the fervor that the arrival of Captain Perkins 
had aroused; for Ashley's party came with empty 
hands, and the story they had to tell must have 
seemed like an anticlimax. The hundred " enter- 
prising young men," led by Major Henry, had 
made their way in good time to the mouth of the 
Yellowstone over two thousand miles away, and 
there, on the tongue of land between the two 
rivers, they had begun to build a fort, from 
whence, as a base, trapping parties might oper- 
ate. But ill fortune had not been lacking. 
While still in the State of Missouri, some two 
days below the mouth of the Kansas River, one 
of the keelboats, heavily laden with valuable 
goods, had become unmanageable while crossing 
the turbulent stream and, drifting against a snag, 
had been staved and sunk. No lives had been 
lost, but the cargo, valued at $10,000, had gone 



34 The Splendid Wayfaring 

to the bottom. Nevertheless, the party had 
forged ahead without much delay. For weeks 
thereafter Fate seemed to have been propitiated 
by that one sacrifice below the Kansas. At the 
villages of the Ree Indians near the mouth of 
the Grand River In what Is now South Dakota, 
Major Henry had spent several days in successful 
trade for horses, and had met no difficulty there, 
though the Rees had earned a reputation for 
treachery among the earlier traders. But In the 
month of August, when the party had passed the 
Mandan towns, a band of Asslnlbolnes that had, 
no doubt, been spying upon the Americans for 
days, had swooped down upon the Impotent horse- 
guards at a time when the main body with the 
keelboat had crossed with the channel to the op- 
posite shore. Fifty horses, that had but recently 
been purchased from the Rees, were driven away, 
while nearly a hundred men, well armed but out 
of range, gazed across the waste of sand and 
water and raged to no purpose. 

But in spite of these initial disasters, Ashley 
was not discouraged. With a hundred men al- 
ready in the fur country, he pointed out that suc- 
cess was only a matter of persistence, and an- 
nounced his intention of leading a second party up 
river early in the spring. Among those who en- 
listed for the great adventure was Jedediah Smith. 



Ill 

NORTHBOUND WITH THE ROBINS 

IT was on the loth of March, 1823, that Gen- 
eral Ashley started again for the Upper Mis- 
souri with a hundred men and two keelboats, 
Yellowstone Packet and The Rocky Mountains. 
And with him went Jedediah Smith in pursuit of 
a dream grown mighty. 

The new grass was like a pale green flame burn- 
ing slowly up the sloughs, and the young leafage 
of the cottonwoods was a thin smoke against the 
sky that day when they started north with the 
robins. Singing they went, for these hundred men 
were young with the spirit of adventure, and that 
is still the youngest thing in the world, though 
it was already ancient when history began. The 
rattle of musketry and the shouting along the 
levee grew dim, and many a youngster, looking 
back, saw for the last time the smoke of the home- 
fires pluming skyward. Some were to disappear 
like yonder hearth-reek, leaving no hint of the 
manner of their passing; and others, bewitched 
by the wild life and the vast free spaces of the 
wilderness, would shed, as an uncomfortable coat, 
the inheritance of ages, lapsing into the primitive, 

35 



36 The Splendid Wayfaring 

never again to long for the snug comforts and 
predetermined ways of civilized man. 

A day and a night passed, and their boats, 
swinging westward, had crossed the agitated line 
that, like a tide rip, marks the thrust of the im- 
petuous Mlwouri against the slower might of the 
Mississippi. At St. Charles farewells were said 
once more; and* then, day by day, signs of civiliza- 
tion became less frequent. From the mouth of 
the Kansas, where the western boundary of the 
States then ran, the spring, still young as at St. 
Louis, led them north. Or did their advance 
progressively awaken the spring? For weeks, it 
seemed, the wonder work made no progress. As 
it had been at the Kansas, so it was at the Platte 
and at the Sioux; for the young men and the 
young sun and the warm southwinds were travel- 
ling together. 

Though these adventurers were now well beyond 
the frontiers of civilization, yet it must not be 
inferred that they were the only white men in 
that portion of the great Missouri Valley. Here 
and there along the river from Its mouth to the 
Three Forks were scattered many trading posts 
of varying Importance. Above the Kansas they 
had passed a considerable number of such es- 
tablishments. There was one at the Blacksnake 
Hills, founded by old Joseph Roubidoux near the 
site of the present St. Joseph. There was the old 
trading house of the Choteaus at the mouth of the 



Northbound with the Robins 37 

Nishnabotna. In the region of the Platte's mouth 
they had seen the post built during the previous 
year by Joshua Pilcher of the Missouri Fur Com- 
pany. Some fifteen miles farther up was old 
Fort Lisa, then about to be abandoned. Five 
miles beyond that, near the point where Lewis 
and Clark held their famous council with the Otoe 
and Missouri Indians, stood Fort Atkinson, then 
the northermost military post of the United 
States on the Missouri River. It was commanded 
at that time by Colonel Leavenworth who was 
soon to win doubtful laurels as leader of the 
" Missouri Legion " in the Ree Campaign. 
There were American traders at Blackbird Hill 
near the old mud village of the Omaha Indians; 
and at the mouth of the Big Sioux, where Sioux 
City now stands, the American Fur Company 
maintained a house. At most of these points 
Ashley's men had rested long enough to exchange 
gossip fresh from the States for news from the 
great upper country. 

On into the North they forged with pole and 
oar and sail and cordelle; but now it was May, 
and the pale green spring somehow began to out- 
pace them at last, though they could not say just 
when they had dropped behind. The grass in 
the sloughs seemed suddenly to have deepened 
and darkened, and the full-leafed cottonwoods 
were ready for the heavy heat of the summer, as 
yet withheld. Past the mouth of the Vermillion 



38 The Splendid Wayfaring 

they tolled; past the Riviere a Jacques; past Ponca 
Post where the fleet Niobrara assails the Missouri 
with a roar and hurls It back despite Its greater 
mass. They were now In the country of the pow- 
erful Sioux tribe, which, though destined to make 
the last great stand of all the prairie peoples 
against the westering Aryan forty years later, was 
still friendly to the whites. 

Hitherto, the northward march of Ashley's 
party had seemed little more than a pleasure 
jaunt, for though the labor at the cordelle was no 
child's play. It was divided among a hundred 
men, and no unforeseen obstacles had been en- 
countered. But soon they were to hear that 
which should put a new face upon the whole ad- 
venture, shatter the Illusions of the attenuated 
pussy-willow spring. At noon one day they toiled 
past the White River coming In on their left; 
and when the sun was level with the bluffs, they 
swung around a right hand bend, and paused to 
shout. There, a little way ahead of them, was 
American Island, green with cedars, and at Its 
lower point stood Fort Recovery, the Sioux trad- 
ing post of the Missouri Fur Company — a clus- 
ter of log cabins surrounded by a wall of sharp- 
ened pickets. 

Many of Ashley's party and the men at the fort 
had known each other since boyhood, and It Is 
easy to Imagine how the evening was spent. But 
the news that the newcomers received in return 



Northbound with the Robins 39 

for the latest gossip from home was hardly re- 
assuring. The Rees, it appeared, were in a bad 
mood. Two months before, a band of over a 
hundred had boldly entered the Sioux country, 
robbed a party of white traders and, encouraged 
by this initial success, had attacked the fort. In 
the brisk battle that followed, several of the In- 
dians had been wounded and two had been killed, 
one of the latter being the son of a chief. Since 
that time, persistent rumors had been coming 
down stream to the effect that the tribe intended 
to leave its villages near the mouth of the Grand, 
join forces with the Mandans near the mouth of 
the Knife, and resist any attempt on the part of 
the traders to pass that point. 

The assembled parties at Fort Recovery could 
not know that this apparently unwarranted 
flare-up of the Rees was not merely a matter of 
whim on the part of that particular people. It 
was, in fact, symptomatic of a widespread spirit 
of opposition among the tribes of a vast region, 
due to the large number of traders that were en- 
tering the country with the revival of the fur 
trade. It could not be known that, far away at 
the Three Forks, Jones and Immel, who had gone 
out with one hundred eighty men during the 
previous spring, were even then approaching death 
and disaster at the hands of the Blackfeet; and 
that bad news was already on the way from Henry 
on the upper river. 



40 The Splendid Wayfaring 

But even considering the affair solely as a mat- 
ter of Ree caprice, and assuming that the Man- 
dans had no notion of joining forces with their 
neighbors to the south, Ashley was confronted 
with a dilemma. The Ree villages were strongly 
fortified and commanded the river. It appeared 
that a wedge was about to be driven between the 
ascending party and Henry at the Yellowstone's 
mouth; for the overland trip was, of course, im- 
possible without many pack horses, and only 
among the Rees themselves, it was thought, could 
a number sufficient for such an undertaking be 
found. The only course possible was to run the 
gauntlet of the Indian villages with the boats. 
After all, the mood of the Rees might have 
changed by now; and there was much in the his- 
tory of the tribe to justify such a hope, for no 
trader ever knew which way the wind of their 
whim might blow. 

Accordingly, the early dawn saw Ashley's hun- 
dred moving northward again. Four days passed 
by without any noteworthy incident; and then at 
noon of the fifth day, when they were nearing the 
mouth of the Cheyenne, an express arrived with 
news from their comrades in the upper country. 
Things had not been going well with Major 
Henry. Having left his new post in charge of 
a small band, he had pushed on up the Missouri 
early in the spring. Near the Great Falls he had 
encountered a hostile party of Blackfeet. De- 



Northbound with the Robins 41 

feated and forced to retreat, he was now waiting 
for reinforcements at the mouth of the Yellow- 
stone. He had lost most of his horses, and asked 
that at least fifty should be purchased by Ashley 
from the Rees, for none could be procured In his 
vicinity. He inclined to the opinion that the 
treachery of the Assiniboines during the previous 
fall and the recent resistance of the Blackfeet 
might be traced to the Influence of the British 
traders who naturally looked with disfavor upon 
the advance of American trappers toward the 
rich fur country of the Columbia and its tribu- 
taries. 

Plainly enough, the key to success for both par- 
ties was held by the Rees ! They had the needed 
horses and they held the river. 

Clinging to the hope that all might still be 
well, Ashley pushed on up stream. At sunset on 
the 29th of May the party camped at the mouth 
of the Grand some five or six miles below the 
Ree towns. In mid-afternoon of the next day 
they rounded a bend where the river, flowing for 
some distance from east to west, turns abruptly 
south, and saw along the north bank, not more 
than half a mile ahead, a clutter of mud lodges 
and a portion of a newly built stockade that ap- 
parently surrounded the settlement. 

The cordelle crews were now taken aboard, 
rifles were placed in easy reach of the men, and 
the boats, proceeding with oars and poles to a 



42 The Splendid Wayfaring 

point in front of the lower village, were anchored 
in mid-stream. The two towns, set upon the flat 
lands in two convex bends that joined at the mouth 
of a little creek flowing from the north, were 
now visible to the men on the keelboats; and each 
of the one hundred forty-one lodges was like a 
hornet's nest boiling forth its swarm. The gut- 
tural voices of men, the high pitched, querulous 
cries of the squaws, and the barking of the dogs 
ran over the settlement. Many a youth who was 
making his first trip into the wilds thought wist- 
fully of home in those tense moments, wondering 
why he had ever wished to leave. 

A Canadian boatman, who had been with Henry 
west of the Rockies, mounted the low roof of the 
Yellowstone's cabin, cupped his hands about his 
mouth and shouted a greeting to the Rees. The 
hubbub among the nearby lodges subsided as he 
began to talk in the universal sign language of the 
plains, indicating the peaceful nature of the white 
men's mission and their wish to enter into a par- 
ley. The reply from the Rees seemed friendly; 
and, seeing three Indians, two of whom were evi- 
dently chiefs, making their way toward the river 
bank. General Ashley, with two men, put off in 
a skiff and met them on the strip of sandy beach. 

Now it happened, whether by good fortune or 
ill remained yet to be seen, that the man who ac- 
companied the two chiefs to the parley was the 
notorious Edward Rose, the sound of whose name, 



Northbound with the Robins 43 

mentioned at intervals from the Gulf of Mexico to 
the Three Forks of the Missouri, would at that 
time have awakened in sequence every note in the 
gamut of emotion from contempt or fear to ad- 
miration. The son of a white trader and a half- 
breed negro and Cherokee woman, Rose had 
achieved notoriety during the closing years of the 
1 8th century as one of a band of pirates operating 
among the islands of the lower Mississippi. 
About the year 1807, the business of piracy seems 
to have become too hazardous even for a man of 
Rose's nature, and he had fled to the wild country 
where a man might still be free to exercise his 
more robust talents. Within a year or two there- 
after, thanks to shrewdness, audacity, undeniable 
courage, and a dusky skin, he had arisen to a posi- 
tion of great power among the Crow Indians, 
whose country lay south of the Yellowstone and 
west of the Powder River. In 181 1 he was 
among the Rees when the Overland Astorians un- 
der W. P. Hunt passed that way, and he had 
acted as a guide for the westbound party from 
the Missouri to the Country of the Crows, with 
whom he remained until about 1820, when he had 
taken up his abode among the Rees. 

Recognizing the man at once by the disfiguring 
scar of an old cutlass wound across the nose, by 
reason of which he was generally known as Nez 
Coupe, Ashley greeted him warmly; for the suc- 
cess of the present venture might easily depend 



44 The Splendid Wayfaring 

upon the influence of this ex-pirate. For a suit- 
able consideration Rose agreed to act as inter- 
preter. The two parties squatted in a circle on 
the sand, and the pipe was passed in dignified 
silence, while the boat-crews in mid-stream and 
the Indians, crowded on the roofs of their mud 
lodges, looked on in a hush of expectancy. When 
the preliminary ceremony was over, the General 
opened the parley. His heart was good and he 
would speak straight words to his brothers, the 
Rees. The white men at the fort on the Island 
of the Cedars in the country of the Sioux had told 
him things that were not good to hear. He was 
sad when he heard that there had been trouble 
between the Rees and the white men down yon- 
der; and he had grieved to hear that a chief's son 
had been killed. All the way up from the Island 
of the Cedars he had been thinking hard about 
this thing; and he had feared that the Rees might 
feel angry at all white men because of what had 
happened. That would be wrong. It was not, 
however, a weak heart that made him speak so. 
His heart was very strong, for he was a big chief 
in his own country; and had he not a hundred 
brave men out yonder on the boats? And each 
of them had grown up with a rifle and could 
shoot straight. He knew that if there should be 
trouble, many Rees would surely die. And that 
was not good to think about. He had passed that 



Northbound with the Robins 45 

way a year ago and had stopped to trade with the 
Rees. They had been very kind, and so his heart 
was warm toward them. His friends, who were 
at the mouth of the Yellowstone, needed more 
horses which were not to be had up there, because 
the Assiniboines were not rich as the Rees were. 
He wished to buy horses and go on to his friends. 
He had spoken. 

At the conclusion of the General's speech, the 
chiefs withdrew for a private conference; and 
when they returned, after what had seemed an 
interminable period to the anxious white men, 
they brought soft words. They too had been 
sad to hear of what had happened at the Island 
of the Cedars; but three moons had grown old 
and died since then, and they no longer remem- 
bered. As the black trail of a prairie fire is made 
green with rain, so their hearts were green again. 
Those were all young men who had gone down 
yonder, wishing to be brave and being only foolish. 
Young men were like that, and would not listen 
to the old men whom many winters had made wise. 
They knew the big white chief before them spoke 
straight words. Also, their own tongues were 
not forked. They had many good horses — so 
many that one could not see them all with a look. 
They would trade. The Ree chiefs had spoken. 

Ashley now gave liberal gifts of scarlet cloth 
to the chiefs and, having agreed upon the mer- 



46 The Splendid Wayfaring 

chandlse that should be exchanged for the horses 
(which Included a liberal supply of powder and 
ball), the white men returned to the boats. The 
tense silence that had clung about the party in 
mid-stream during the parley, now gave way to 
singing and laughter and jest, as the men made 
ready for the trade. Raw youths, out of sheer 
relief from dread, boasted valiantly. If the Rees 
wanted trouble, they knew very well where they 
could get it in plenty! Here, evidently, was a 
good example of crossing bridges before you 
reached them. In a few weeks now the two 
parties would be united on the Yellowstone, and 
where was the parcel of niggers that could stop 
two hundred white men? However, some of the 
older members of the party examined their rifle- 
locks, and were silent. 

Shortly after noon the dickering began. It 
continued until sunset; and all next day they hag- 
gled, Yankee shrewdness and Indian cunning con- 
testing every point as the shaggy ponies came up 
for appraisal. By evening of the first of June 
the desired number of animals had been purchased, 
and, uneasy with their hobbles, these milled and 
nickered on the beach. During the bartering ar- 
rangements had been made for a party to set out 
with the herd at dawn for the cross-country trip 
to the mouth of the Yellowstone. Forty of the 
more dependable men were chosen for this task, 
and among the number was Jedediah Smith. 



Northbound with the Robins 47 

As twilight deepened, the overland party made 
a semi-circular camp which, with the river, en- 
closed the herd; and a crescent of driftwood fires 
was glowing when the dark came down. 



IV 

THE BATTLE 

THE camp fires on the beach burned low, serv- 
ing only to heighten the sense of compan- 
ionship among the men; for it was a sultry night. 
Sounds carried far. A dog-feast was being held 
somewhere in the upper village, and now and then 
the drums of the dance boomed through the soft 
dusk that was odorous with the young summer. 
At times, the bass voices of the singing braves 
roared above the drums, and out of these soared 
the thin-spun notes of the squaws. Then the song 
would cease abruptly, and in the succeeding hush 
the droning of insect life and the mumble of the 
river would come back — like the sense of dear 
and common things. Sometimes a voyageur on 
the black boats would fling a snatch of song across 
the forty yards of darkling water that separated 
the parties, and the camp on shore would catch it 
up boisterously, and set the horses neighing. Or 
some wag in the camp, remembering a current jest 
at the expense of a comrade out yonder, would 
hurl It at the boats, receiving a good-natured 
verbal drubbing for his pains, till the distant bluffs 
joined in the laughter. 

48 



The Battle 49 

It was the time when men remember tales, and 
about those fires where yarns were being spun, 
the groups increased. 

" Go ahead and roll us out some of your doin's 
that time across the plains," said a youngster, 
lounging in one of the larger groups, to an old- 
timer who had been to Santa Fe and had scars to 
show. " You seed sights that spree, eh? " ^ 

" Well, we did ! " the old timer replied. 

Far off thunder mumbled as the party waited 
for the yarning to begin. 

" Some of 'em got their flints fixed this side of 
Pawnee Fork," so the old veteran began at length, 
" and a heap of mule meat went wolfing. Just 
by Little Arkansaw we saw the first Injun. Me 
and young Somes was ahead for meat, and I had 
hobbled the old mule and was approachin' some 
goats, when I see the critturs turn back their heads 
and jump right away from me. ' Hurraw, Dick ! ' 
I shouts, ' hyar's brown skin a comin' ! ' And off 
I makes for my mule. The young greenhorn sees 
the goats runnin' up to him, and not being up to 
Injun ways, he blazes at the first and knocks him 
over. Jest then seven red heads tops the bluff, 
and seven Pawnees come a-screechin' on us. I 
cuts the hobbles and jumps on the mule, and when 
I looks back, there was Dick Somes rammin' a 
ball down his gun like mad, and the Injuns 

^ The two tales in this chapter are borrowed, with slight 
changes, from Ruxton's " Life in the Far West," as being typical 
of the campfire yarns of the period. 



50 The Splendid Wayfaring 

flingin' their arrows at him pretty smart, I tell 
you. ' Hurraw, Dick, mind your hair! ' And I 
ups old Greaser and let one Injun have It as was 
goin' plum through the boy with his lance. He 
turned on his back handsome, and Dick gets the 
ball down at last, blazes away and drops another. 
Then we charged on 'em, and they clears off like 
runnin' cows. I takes the hair off the heads of 
the two as we made meat of; and I do believe 
thar's some of them scalps on my leggln's yet. 

" Well, Dick was as full of arrows as a porky- 
pine; one was stickin' right through his cheek, one 
in his meat-bag, and two more 'bout his hump- 
ribs. I tuk 'em all out slick, and away we goes 
to camp, and carryin' the goat too. 'Injuns! 
Injuns! ' was what the greenhorns yelled; 'we'll 
be tackled tonight, that's sartin ! ' ' Tackled be 
damned! ' says I; ' ain't we men too, and white 
at that? ' 

" Well, as soon as the animals was unpacked, 
the guvner sends out a strong guard, seven boys, 
and old hands at that. It was pretty nigh on 
sundown. The boys was drivin' in the animals, 
when, howgh-owgh'Owgh-owgh we hears right be- 
hind the bluffs; and 'bout a minute and a crowd of 
Injuns gallops down on the animals. Wagh! 
Warn't thar hoopin' ! We jumps for the guns, 
but before we got to the fires, the Injuns was 
among the herd. I saw Ned CoUyer and his 
brother, who was In the hoss-guard, let drive at 



The Battle 51 

'cm; but twenty Pawnees was round 'em before 
the smoke cleared from their guns; and when the 
crowd broke, the two boys was on the ground and 
their hair gone. Thar war an Englishman that 
just saved the herd. He had his mare, a reg'lar 
buffler-runner, picketed right handy, and as soon 
as he sees the fix, he jumps on her and rides right 
into the thick of the mules, and passes through 
'em firin' his two-shot gun at the Injuns; and by 
gor he made two come. The mules, which was 
snortin' with funk and runnin' before the Injuns, 
as soon as they see the Englishman's mare, fol- 
lowed her right back into the corral, and thar 
they was safe. Fifty Pawnees came screechin' 
after 'em, but we was ready that time, and the 
way we throwed 'em was something handsome. 
But three of the boss-guards got skeered — least- 
wise their mules did, and carried 'em off into the 
perairy, and the Injuns dashed after 'em. Them 
pore devils looked back, miserable now, I tell ye, 
with about a hundred red varmints tearin' after 
their hair, and hoopin' like mad. Young Jem 
Belcher was the last; and when he seed it was no 
use, and his time was nigh, he throwed himself 
off his mule, and standin' as straight as a hickory 
wipin' stick, he waves his hand to us, and blazes 
away at the first Injun as come up, and drops him 
slick; but the next moment, you may guess, he 
died. We couldn't do nothin', for before our 
guns was loaded, all three was dead and their hair 



52 The Splendid Wayfaring 

was gone. Five of our boys got rubbed out that 
time, and seven Injuns lay wolf's meat, while a 
many more went off gut-shot, I'll lay! Howso- 
ever, five of us went under, and the Pawnees made 
a raise of a dozen mules. Wagh ! " 

A low, incessant rumbling, punctuated by an oc- 
casional earth-shaking bump far off in the dark 
Northwest now overlaid and dimmed the droning 
of the bugs. Coyotes yammered from the bluffs, 
and now and then Ree dogs answered, howling. 

" I'll say as how we are in for a right smart 
storm of rain and thunder," remarked old Glass, 
arising and peering in the direction from whence 
a faint breath of wind had sprung out of a rising 
wall of murk that was slowly blotting out the 
stars. But the old-timer was in a mood for more 
yarning. " Yes, sir! " he was saying. '' I went 
out that time old Jim lost his animals. A hun- 
dred and forty mules froze that night, wagh ! 
Old Bill Laforey was thar; and the cussedest liar 
was Bill — for lies tumbled out of his mouth like 
boudins out of a buffler's stomach. He was the 
child as saw the putrefied forest! I mind when 
Bill come in to St. Louis once; and one day he was 
fixed up like a dandy and a-settin' in the tavern 
when a lady says to him: 'Well, Mister La- 
forey,' she says; ' I hear as how you're a great 
trav'ler.' 

'' ' Trav'ler, marm,' says Bill; 'this nigger's 



The Battle 53 

no trav'ler. I are a trapper, marm, a mountain- 
man, wagh! ' 

" ' Well, Mister Laforey,' says the lady, ' trap- 
pers is great trav'lers, and you goes over a sight 
of ground in your perishinations, I'll be bound to 
say ! ' 

" ' A sight, marm, this coon's gone over,' says 
Bill, ' if that's the way your stick floats. I've 
trapped beaver on Arkansaw and away up on 
Yallerstone. I've fout the Blackfeet; I've raised 
the hair of more'n one Apach', and made a 
'Rapaho come afore now. And scalp my old 
head, marm, but I've seed a putrefied forest,' says 
Bill. 

*' ' La, Mister Laforey — a what?' says the 
lady. 

" ' A putrefied forest, marm,' says Bill, * as 
sure as my rifle's got hind sights! One day we 
crossed a canyon and over a divide and got into 
a perairy whar was green grass, and green trees, 
and green leaves on the trees, and birds singin' 
in the green leaves, and this in Febr'ary, wagh ! 
Our animals was like to die when they see the 
green grass, and we all sung out, Hurraw for 
summer doin's ! And I jest ups old Ginger at one 
of them singin' birds, and down come the crittur 
elegant, its head spinnin' away from the body, 
but never stops singin'. I finds it was stone, 
wagh! And old Rube, what was with us, ups 



54 ^^^ Splendid Wayfaring 

with his ax and lets drive at a cottonwood. 
Schruk-k-kf goes the ax agin the tree, and out 
comes a bit of the blade as big as my hand. We 
looks at the animals, and thar they stood shakin' 
over the grass, which I'm dog-gone if it warn't 
stone too. And a feller as knowed everything 
came up and he scrapes the trees with his butcher 
knife, and snaps the grass like pipe stems, and 
breaks the leaves like shells. He said it was pu- 
trefactions ! ' 

" ' La, Mister Laforey,' says the lady; ' did the 
leaves and grass smell bad? ' 

" * Smell bad, marm? ' says Bill; ' would a pole- 
cat as was froze to stone smell bad? If it warn't 
a putrefied perairy, marm, then this boss don't 
know fat cow from poor bull, nohow ! ' 

" Well," resumed the old-timer, when the roar 
of laughter had subsided, " Old Bill Laforey is 
gone under now. Went trappin' with a French- 
man who shot him for his bacca and traps. And 
that reminds me. Has any of you'ns got any 
bacca? This beaver feels like chawin'." 

A sudden gust of cool wind sent the embers 
scurrying and made the tent poles creak. The 
drums in the upper village no longer boomed, and 
the singing voices were stilled. Even the coyotes 
had ceased to cry. But as the men peered to 
windward into the murk where sheet lightning 
leaped fitfully, they heard but a little way up the 
valley the roaring of wind-embattled trees and 



The Battle 55 

the many-footed tumult of the charging rain. 

Scarcely had the tent-pins been secured to wind- 
ward and the horse guards taken their allotted 
stations about the excited herd, when the storm 
broke. For hours it raged, and whoever peeped 
through a tent flap into the leaping flare of the 
lightning, saw the world as a freshly painted 
monotone smeared and blurred by the sweep of 
some huge brush dipped in electric blue. 

Lulled by the monotonous uproar of the storm, 
the camp slept at last, unconscious of a sinister 
activity in the villages. Shortly before the tem- 
pest struck, Edward Rose, who had been mingling 
with the dancers at the dog-feast In the upper 
town, had stolen away from the revellers and, 
putting off in a canoe, paddled out to the keelboat 
Yellowstone. Taking Ashley aside, he had ex- 
pressed doubts as to the good intentions of the 
Rees. What made him doubt? No more than 
a feeling he had that something was going wrong. 
Ashley, doubting Rose more than the Rees, had 
gone to bed little troubled. 

About midnight the fury of the storm ceased, 
but the heavy downpour continued through the 
pitch-black hours. At half past three a dripping 
horse-guard, with bad news to tell, awoke Gen- 
eral Ashley. Aaron Stephens had been killed in 
the upper village, and it seemed probable that the 
Rees might begin an attack on the boats and the 
camp at any moment. The General sent the 



^6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

guard back to arouse the men on shore, and soon 
both parties with their rifles in readiness, were 
peering anxiously into the black drench; and the 
dread was the greater in that nothing was visible. 
Time seemed to have grown sluggish with the rain 
chill and the drowse of the wee hours. It was the 
time when courage is at its lowest ebb, and the 
unresolved sighing of the rain was like a doleful 
prophecy to many a youth who now for the first 
time looked forward to battle. Slowly the min- 
utes crawled dawnward. The droning of the rain 
lessened like the sound of a huge revolving wheel 
losing speed. By and by the blackness began to 
dissolve into melancholy drab, and the lodges of 
the Ree loomed ominously in the drizzle. 

Tediously the fading of the dark went on. 
The line of pickets surrounding the village was 
now visible. Nothing seemed to be moving 
there. Would anything happen after all? A 
sense of relief spread through the camp on shore. 
The men ventured to talk now, for the rain had 
ceased, and the familiar world was coming back 
with the slow light. Peacefully the dusky boats 
swung at anchor in mid-stream. The horses 
stood quietly, huddled together with drooping 
necks and steaming hides. Soon the clouds would 
break, the sun would rise, the westward journey 
would begin, and laughter would be the end of the 
night's anxiety. 

The crack of a rifle and a spurt of smoke from a 



The Battle 57 

central point In the line of pickets brought the men 
to their feet. A horse screamed and floundered 
in the sand, and the herd whinnied and milled. 
Then suddenly the whole length of the Indian 
stockade roared into smoke, and simultaneously 
the wet beach spurted jets of sand. More horses 
went down screaming, and the hobbled herd 
plunged and jostled helplessly. 

Ben Sneed, Tully Piper and Reed Gibson were 
down, the latter struggling to get up, the two 
others lying very still. General Ashley's lack of 
judgment in placing the horses and the overland 
party on the beach was now painfully apparent; 
for no way of retreat was open except toward 
the river. In the disorder that followed the first 
sweeping volley of the Rees, it was, curiously 
enough, not one of the old-timers who strove to 
draw the panicky men into some plan of action, 
but one of the youngest of the band, one who had 
never before heard the snarl of hostile bullets — 
Jedediah Smith. With the quiet courage and 
practical good sense that were to characterize his 
short but brilliant career, Jed turned his attention 
to the horses. He saw that the enemy was bent 
upon wiping out the herd, and even in the excite- 
ment of the attack he realized to the full the 
meaning of such a loss, both to the embattled 
party and to Henry far away on the Yellowston_e. 
Calling John Matthews, John Collins, and Jim 
Daniels to aid him, he coolly set about the task 



58 The Splendid Wayfaring 

of cutting the hobbles of the horses, Intent upon 
driving them Into the stream and forcing them 
to swim across to safety. 

By this time the attack had settled down to a 
brisk running fire up and down the whole line of 
pickets and from the adjoining shelter of tumbled 
sand banks. The Rees were armed with London 
fusils, furnished by British traders from the 
North, and It was Ashley's own powder and lead 
that now worked havoc with his plans. A great 
portion of the firing was being concentrated upon 
the animals, and many were going down. Some, 
feeling themselves free of the hobbles, raced 
neighing down the beach until a raking volley 
rolled them. Some few ran the gauntlet of the 
pickets unhurt, and disappeared In the brush. 
When the three men whom he had summoned to 
his aid had been shot down. Smith gave up the at- 
tempt and joined In the battle. 

Joe Gardner was dead, and David Howard and 
George Flagler would never see St. Louis again. 
Anger at the sight of their comrades falling about 
them had served to steady the band, and all now 
were fighting like veterans. Thilless, the black 
man, with a bullet hole through both legs, was 
busy loading and firing from a sitting position, 
cheerily announcing to his comrades now and then : 
" They ain't killed this niggah yet! " Old Hugh 
Glass, bleeding from a hip-wound, was plying the 
warrior's trade In a cool, methodical manner, al- 



The Battle 59 

ways watching for an Indian's head to appear 
above the pickets or the patch of broken ground 
before he pressed the trigger. In much the same 
leisurely manner, the old-timer, who had survived 
many a scrimmage, went about the business of kill- 
ing, now and then giving vent to his satisfaction 
with an Arapahoe war-whoop. 

It was a gallant standup fight, but it was hope- 
less from the first. Even when Ashley managed 
to put the skiffs ashore In spite of the shower of 
bullets that whipped the river, only seven of the 
party on the beach — two of those being seriously 
wounded — were willing to accept this means of 
escape. They had seen their comrades slain and 
their horses slaughtered. Their blood was up — 
and it was the blood of Kentuckians and Vir- 
ginians and Pennsylvanians. Many of them were 
for storming the villages. If only the party on the 
boats would come and help. But the party on the 
boats, composed largely of French voyageiirs, had 
already mutinied at Ashley's command to move in- 
shore. Only with great dlflSculty had the General 
been able to induce a handful of the more cour- 
ageous to land with the skiffs. Shortly after the 
skiffs had pulled away, the shore party saw the 
keelboats dropping down stream and out of the 
fight. Deserted by their comrades, with half 
their number either dead or wounded, they real- 
ized at last the folly of further resistance. Leap- 
ing Into the river, they struck out after the boats. 



6o The Splendid Wayfaring 

Some, miscalculating the strength of the current, 
were swept away and lost. Some of the wounded 
went down and were seen no more. Several were 
shot as they swam, and disappeared. 

It had been a struggle of magnificent courage 
against an alliance of treachery and cowardice; 
and the latter had won. Many of the youngsters, 
who had never fought before, were sobbing with 
rage and shame as, drenched and bleeding, they 
were dragged aboard by their faithless comrades. 



THE EXPRESS TO HENRY 

IN a letter written two days after the battle to 
Major O'Fallon, Indian Agent at Fort Atkin- 
son, Ashley has set down for posterity the story of 
his woes.^ " I ordered the boats landed at the 
first timber for the purpose of putting the men and 
boats in a better situation to pass the villages in 
safety," so the letter continues after giving an ac- 
count of the catastrophe. " When my intentions 
were made known, to my surprise and mortifica- 
tion, I was told by the men (with but few excep- 
tions) that under no circumstances would they 
make a second attempt to pass without a large re- 
inforcement. Finding that no arguments that I 
could use would cause them to change their reso- 
lution, I commenced making arrangements for the 
security of my property. The men proposed that 
if I would descend the river to this place (near 
the mouth of the Moreau River), fortify the 
boats, or make any other defense for their secur- 
ity, they would remain with me until I could re- 
ceive aid from Major Henry, or from some other 
quarter. I was compelled to agree to the propo- 
sition. On my arrival here, I found them as 

1 " South Dakota Historical Collections." Vol. I. 
6i 



62 The Splendid Wayfaring 

much determined to go lower. A resolution has 
been formed by the most of them to desert. I 
called for volunteers to remain with me under any 
circumstances until I should receive the expected 
aid. Thirty only volunteered. Among them 
were few boatmen, consequently I am compelled 
to send one boat back. After taking a part of 
her cargo on board this boat ( Yellowstone 
Packet), the balance will be stored at the first 
fort below." The rest of the letter is concerned 
with the hope that government forces may be 
sent " to make these people (the Rees) account 
for the outrage committed." 

We may imagine that it was a sullen and crest- 
fallen party that landed " at the first timber " 
below the scene of disaster; and that nearly all re- 
fused to make an immediate attempt to pass the 
Ree towns is not strange. Those who had fought 
on shore had seen just how far their comrades 
could be trusted for support; and though Ash- 
ley's courage could not be questioned, his con- 
spicuous lack of generalship was scarcely calcu- 
lated to fill his men with confidence. 

While the boats were lying ashore at the first 
timber, a funeral service was held on board the 
keelboat Yellowstone for one John Gardner, who 
died of wounds shortly after the battle. We have 
old Hugh Glass's word for It, in a quaint letter 
dispatched by him to the dead boy's relatives, that 
" Mr. Smith, a young man of our company, made 



The Express to Henry 63 

a powerful prayr wh moved us all greatly, and 
I am persuaded John died In peace." ^ 

When the party refused to brave the Rees 
again, Ashley decided to summon Major Henry to 
his aid. But the distance to the mouth of the 
Yellowstone was close upon two hundred miles as 
the crow flies; and considering the warlike mood 
of the Indian tribes at that time, the journey 
would be extremely hazardous. Who, in the 
present mood of defeat that had settled upon the 
party, would venture upon such a mission? Lin- 
ing up his men, Ashley stated the case and made 
an appeal for volunteers. Only one man stepped 
out of the line. It was Jedediah Smith. Many 
wondered at this, and especially the old-timers. 
A young man who prayed like a parson and was 
more daring than the tough old mountain men! 
According to their experience, it didn't appear 
reasonable; and yet it was so! 

Notwithstanding Jed's expressed willingness to 
set forth without human companionship, Ashley 
insisted that the young man should not go alone, 
and finally succeeded in inducing one Baptiste, a 
French-Canadian trapper, to undertake the jour- 
ney. Several of the horses that had managed to 
escape unwounded were found grazing in the tim- 
ber that fringed the river; and these having been 
caught with little difficulty, preparations were 
made for the perilous cross-country ride. 

1" South Dakota Historical Collections." Vol. I. 



64 The Splendid Wayfaring 

When the dark had fallen, the two men, each 
armed with a rifle, a pistol, and a hunting knife, 
mounted and rode westward out of the wood. 
Crossing the bottom and ascending a low range of 
bluffs, they saw behind them the broad glooming 
valley, mysterious under the stars, and the glim- 
mering strip that was the river. Far away in 
front, where the sky still held a pale reminder of 
the way the sun had gone, the prairie was a billow- 
ing dusk, the higher ridges looming vaguely in 
the wash of the starshine — vast distances, rather 
felt than seen. 

Spurring their tough little horses into a jog trot, 
and keeping the North Star above their right 
shoulders, Jed and the Frenchman forged on into 
an unknown land, heading for the Yellowstone 
that was somewhere out yonder beyond the rim of 
the night. Wolves howled occasionally from the 
hill tops and the prairie owls raised their voices 
In the joyless, unearthly laughter that they know. 
Slowly the hours dragged on, and the men, riding 
silently knee to knee, had little sense of progress 
save when creek or coulee had to be crossed. The 
'Dipper, which is the time-piece of the heavens, 
seemed at times to have stuck on the upward swing 
about the Pole; yet suddenly it was up, and after 
that the increasing drowsiness, against which the 
riders struggled, gave speed to the starry clock. 
Thrice the Frenchman nodded, and thrice the 
swinging dipper leaped ahead for him. Nod- 




Courtesy of Prof S. H. Knight, University of Wyoming 
Mouth of the Sweetwater, where Fitzpatrick Was Wrecked 



The Express to Henry 65 

ding again, he raised his face to the sky and saw 
that the gloom was fading out in the vast hollow. 
Far across the rolling prairie to the rear a faint 
streak of light was visible. The stars were burn- 
ing low, and the landscape was beginning to lift 
out of the dusk. To their right, about a mile dis- 
tant, a strip of timber marked the course of the 
Grand River, and riding thither they descended 
into the valley and camped near the water where 
a patch of lush grass grew. Here, while the 
weary horses, tied to convenient bullberry bushes, 
fed contentedly, Jed and Baptiste ate a scanty 
breakfast and lay down to rest. 

The reaction from the tense experience of the 
previous morning, together with the fatigue of the 
long night ride, soon sent them into a sound sleep. 
After what seemed no more than a few minutes, 
Jed,^ startled by a shrill neighing, leaped up, ex- 
pecting to see the long line of pickets spouting 
smoke and a kicking tangle of wounded horses on 
the beach. ^ Baptiste was also up, clutching his 
rifle and blinking at the peaceful valley In momen- 
tary bewilderment. In the mind of one rudely 
awakened from deep sleep, much may happen in 
the first wild instants of returning consciousness. 
Glancing at the stream, Jed marvelled to see It 
flowing backwards ! In the morning It should be 
flowing toward the sun, and now It was most cer- 
tainly flowing away from the morning that was 
no more than a half hour old. Then he knew that 



66 The Splendid Wayfaring 

they had slept all day and that the sun was near to 
setting. Again the horses neighed, pricking their 
ears and gazing down stream with heads held high 
and tails up. A faint answer, as of many horses 
whinnying together, came back. 

Jed and Baptiste, now broad awake, saw a band 
of mounted Indian warriors filing diagonally down 
the flank of the blufl into the valley no more than 
half a mile to the east. There seemed to be at 
least twenty-five in the band, and it was plain now 
that the white men had been discovered, for after 
a moment of agitation, the party separated, some 
dashing on down into the valley and out of sight 
among the trees, others hurrying back to the open 
prairie from whence they had just come. 

Fortunately, Jed and Baptiste had not unsad- 
dled. They had intended to rest only long 
enough for the horses to feed, wishing to put as 
much space as possible between them and the Rees 
before they ventured on a good sound sleep. In a 
few moments they had mounted and were plung- 
ing down the valley in and out among the plum 
thickets and the bullberry clumps. Now a steep 
bluff, closing in to the water's edge, forced them 
to ford the stream; now for a few hundred yards 
they found good footing and made the most of it; 
now again they were crashing through brush into 
another open space. They knew that the chances 
favored them, for their own horses were fresh 
after a long day of grazing, and doubtless their 



The Express to Henry 67 

pursuers had been riding since daybreak. If they 
were able to gain only slightly during the few re- 
maining hours of light, their chances for escaping 
in the dark would be good. 

The sun set, the twilight deepened, the stars 
came out. Reining their lathered and winded 
horses to a stand, they listened and heard only the 
sighing of a light breeze from the west. Never- 
theless, if the Indians had persisted in the pursuit, 
which seemed likely, they could not be more than 
three or four miles behind. To ascend the slop- 
ing bluffs to the right and take the open prairie 
might bring the white men into contact with the 
party that had turned back to the highland. The 
bluffs to the left were precipitous, and to seek for 
a way out in that direction would involve much 
loss of time. Riding on down the valley at a 
walk, the two men were discussing the situation 
when Baptiste abruptly checked his horse and 
sniffed the air. 

'* Nom de Dieuf '^ he whispered; "it ees 
smoke ! Rees, maybe. What we do now? " 

Jed had also caught the smell of smouldering 
wood. " Stay here with the horses," said he, 
" and wait till I come back." Pushing cautiously 
through a wild-cherry thicket and rounding the 
base of a bluff that jutted into the valley, he saw, 
about a hundred yards ahead, the black mass of a 
cluster of cottonwoods splashed with the glow of 
a dying fire. The light appeared to come from 



68 The Splendid Wayfaring 

one point; and If this were true, the party camping 
there was probably small, for the great storm had 
brought a cold wave and the night air was uncom- 
fortably chill. 

Jed began to crawl toward the glow, feeling 
ahead of him as he went and carefully removing 
any sticks that lay in his path, lest the snapping of 
one might arouse those about the fire. By and 
by, peering through a screen of brush, he saw the 
camp. At first glance, there seemed to be only 
one man — unmistakably a Ree. He was sitting 
cross-legged before a small heap of glowing em- 
bers, and he was evidently very sleepy, for his chin 
rested on his breast. But when Jed's eyes became 
adjusted to the glow, he saw that the man was not 
alone. Two other warriors, apparently sound 
asleep, lay sprawled upon the grass with their feet 
to the fire, their bodies looming dim in the shad- 
ows. Three black bulks — horses, by the sound 
of nipping and blowing that came from them — 
were barely visible in the deeper gloom of the cot- 
tonwoods. 

'' The villages are probably short of meat," 
thought Jed, " and this is a scouting party that 
has been looking for buffalo and is now wait- 
ing for the main body of hunters." 

Jed crawled back to the waiting Frenchman and 
reported what he had seen. '' It's the safest way 
out, Baptiste," he said. " Our horses are a bit 
weary, and the Rees owe us many." 



The Express to Henry 69 

" Scalps too ! " whispered the Frenchman, evi- 
dently gloating over the prospect for avenging the 
death of his comrades in the battle on the beach. 

Having agreed upon the plan of attack, they 
tied their horses and started, walking until they 
had rounded the jutting bluff. Here they cocked 
their rifles and began to crawl, Jed leading and 
carefully clearing the way as before. Soon they 
were peering through the brush within twenty 
yards of the camp. The man by the fire had not 
moved. 

'' Ready," whispered Jed. At the roar of his 
gun, the man who had been sitting, leaped up with 
a wild yell, staggered, and fell across the embers. 
Simultaneously the two shadowy sleepers scram- 
bled to their feet, and at the sound of Baptiste's 
rifle, one went down. The other had seized his 
gun, but with a warwhoop from the Frenchman 
the white men broke from cover with drawn pis- 
tols. 

" Examine the horses, Baptiste," said Jed when 
the brief affair was over; " and choose the two 
best, while I fetch ours." 

When, after a few minutes, Jed emerged from 
the dark, leading the fagged animals, he found the 
Frenchman wiping three dripping scalps on the 
grass. 

" It's bad enough to be forced to kill," said 
Smith, " but this is a heathen practice ! " 

'' Enfant de Gdrcef " exclaimed Baptiste, whose 



70 The Splendid Wayfaring 

experience among the wild tribes of the North had 
developed the latent savagery that Is In most men; 
^' c^est la guerre! Moi, je siiis mountain man! 
By and by you mountain man too ; then — wagh ! " 
He finished with a sweep of his reeking knife 
about his left fist by way of indicating the war- 
rior's rite of " lifting hair "; and with a chuckle 
of satisfaction tucked the hideous souvenirs un- 
der his belt and wiped his hands on his buckskin 
trousers. 

Hurriedly now they shifted their saddles to the 
taller and rangier horses of their fallen foes, leav- 
ing the third horse tied as they had found him; 
and half the night, as they pushed rapidly west- 
ward, they heard their own discarded animals, 
weary with the recent flight, neighing and floun- 
dering through the brush in the rear. Then the 
sounds ceased. When day broke, the riders ven- 
tured to ascend the bluffs by way of a winding 
gully, and halting on a summit that commanded a 
view of the river and prairie for many miles, they 
saw no living thing but a wolf loping along a dis- 
tant ridge and a flock of crows hunting for a feast. 

They camped in a bullberry thicket, staked their 
horses out to graze, and spent the day resting, 
each taking his turn on guard while the other slept. 
When the valley began to fill with blue shadows, 
they set out again, following the stream. It was 
not yet midnight by the Dipper when they reached 
the place where the river forks; and being uncer- 



The Express to Henry 71 

tain as to which branch would be the better, they 
struck out across the open prairie on what they 
judged to be the shortest route to the Yellow- 
stone. 

Guided by the North Star, they made good 
progress for several hours, when the sky became 
overcast. Still they pushed on, trusting to luck 
and to the sense of direction they still felt. But 
steadily the night grew blacker, and by and by a 
drizzling rain began to fall. It soon increased to 
a sodden, passionless downpour. Suddenly Jed 
became aware that, so far as he was concerned, 
there were but three directions — out and up and 
down ! 

" No use going on, Baptiste," he said; " for we 
might find ourselves back at the forks in the morn- 
ing." 

They staked their horses, and, sitting huddled 
together with their blankets over their heads, 
waited for the morning. It came at last — an 
ooze of drab light through the drifting rain. 
With heads and tails drooping and dripping, feet 
drawn together, the chilled horses presented a 
spectacle of misery. The emerging landscape 
would have been dismal enough in the sunlight, 
but now it was disheartening. The valley back 
yonder had been fat with the vigorous young sum- 
mer; here only bunch grass grew, and no brush 
was in sight as far as they could see to where the 
descending curtains of the rain shut out the world. 



72 The Splendid Wayfaring 

A fire was out of the question. Chilled with the 
night's long drenching, they mounted and rode 
away at a jog trot, with their backs to the drowned 
dawn, while Baptiste muttered weird French oaths 
in his streaming whiskers. 

After hours they found themselves in a gumbo 
plain from whence, at intervals, grotesquely 
carven buttes soared flat-topped into the soppy 
haze. They were obliged to proceed at a walk 
now, for the earth was spongy and the hoofs of 
the horses popped and sucked as they floundered 
on. No wood all that day; and when the dark 
came on, once more the men bivouacked in the 
mud and drench. 

The rain ceased in the night and morning 
came with a golden sun that set the drear land 
steaming. Close on noon they topped the gully- 
torn divide between the feeders of the Big and 
Little Missouri, and gazing westward they saw 
afar the valley of the latter stream, a tangle of 
ragged gulches and rain-sculptured buttes. Dur- 
ing the afternoon Baptiste's rifle rolled a moun- 
tain sheep from a butte top, and that evening 
they feasted by the Little Missouri where a plum 
thicket furnished fuel and a patch of slough grass 
offered a good night's grazing for the animals. 

Up and off at the first light, they crossed the 
river at the expense of another thorough soak- 
ing, for the stream was swollen with the recent 
rains; and when the horses plunged under in mid- 



The Express to Henry 73 

current, the riders were forced to take to the 
water, gripping the saddle horn with one hand. 
But the soaking mattered little so long as their 
screw-topped horns kept their powder dry. 
After hours of hard going in torrent-carved 
gulches, they emerged upon a lonesome upland 
and struck out northwest, crossing a number of 
creeks during the day, all of which flowed in a 
northerly direction; and they knew that they were 
now within the drainage area of the Yellowstone 
River. 

On the second day from the crossing of the Lit- 
tle Missouri they began to follow the rugged val- 
ley of a small stream that led them in two more 
days into the valley of the Yellowstone. Game, 
grass, and wood were plentiful now; but Indians 
might also be plentiful, for the Assiniboines, who 
had proven themselves unfriendly to Henry's 
party the year before, were known to wander over 
this region as far as the mouth of the Powder, 
where Absaroka, the Country of the Crows, be- 
gan. Once more Jed and Baptiste travelled by 
night; and without encountering any further difli- 
culties, they came in the white dawn of the third 
day to the junction of the two great rivers. 

An hour later, the gates of Henry's fort on the 
south bank of the Missouri, four miles above the 
mouth of the Yellowstone, swung open and the 
two horsemen, bedraggled with their recent swim, 
rode into the enclosure and dismounted amid a 



74 The Splendid Wayfaring 

throng of trappers clamoring for news frcm Ash- 
ley. A tall, slender man, with keen gray-blue 
eyes and the quiet, confident bearing of one who is 
born to command, pushed his way through the 
gathering of eager men ; and for the first time Jed- 
ediah Smith and Major Henry met. Together 
these two withdrew to one of the larger log cabins 
of the post, leaving Baptiste to enlarge and embel- 
lish, in the picturesque mongrel tongue of the 
French voyageiir, the tale of the battle with the 
Rees and the long cross-country ride from the 
mouth of the Grand. 



VI 

THE TWO PARTIES UNITE 

IT was indeed a discouraging situation that 
Major Henry faced that day; for It seemed 
that his business venture with General Ashley had 
been doomed to failure from the very beginning. 
The series of misfortunes, as we have seen, had 
begun before his northbound expedition of the 
preceding spring had passed beyond the limit of 
the States. Near Fort Osage, in the State of 
Missouri, a keelboat with all Its cargo had gone 
to the bottom of the river. Then, on the last lap 
of the arduous journey to the Yellowstone, he had 
lost his horses to the Asslnlbolnes. Only recently 
he had returned from his defeat by the Blackfeet, 
In the region of the Great Falls, to his post near 
the junction of the rivers, determined to push on 
again as soon as the second party should join him. 
With this in view he had sent an express to Ashley 
with the news of his urgent need; and now came 
these riders from Ashley, asking help of one who 
had been unable to help himself! Such are the 
occasional ironies of circumstance that sometimes 
make misfortune seem a mysterious and malevo- 
lent personality. 

75 



76 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Henry moved with characteristic promptness. 
Leaving twenty of his men in possession of the 
post, he set out by keelboat next morning with the 
balance of his party. Jed and Baptiste went with 
him. 

Of all the primitive modes of travel, none is 
more delightful than down-stream drifting when 
the June floods run; and now the distant moun- 
tains were feeding the river with their melting 
snows. When the winds are light or blow astern, 
this means of overcoming distance is the next best 
thing to standing on a magic carpet and wishing 
the miles away. A great calm had followed the 
wide-sweeping rains, and the keelboat kept the 
boiling current like a conscious being well aware of 
its trail. Through the slow lapse of the June 
days the men had nothing to do but to smoke and 
tell yarns. 

The story of the Blackfoot battle was told and 
retold until the latest version was scarcely to be 
regarded as a collection of related individual ac- 
counts, but rather as a rudimentary work of art 
whose author was the whole group consciousness. 
This " gentle art of lying," the alleged passing of 
which was once eloquently bemoaned by Oscar 
Wilde, reached a high degree of development 
among the wandering bands of the Early West. 
But " lying " is far too harsh a word; rather let 
us call it the process of finding a thread of reason 
running through the apparent unreasonableness 



The Two Parties Unite 77 

of circumstance; of making beauty by the simple 
means of shifting the relationship between facts 
that In themselves appear unbeautlful. Thus do 
men seek to put their world In order about them, 
that life may still be understandable and dear. 

And there was another story that Henry's men 
did not weary of telling from many angles and 
with many sidelights during the idle days of drift- 
ing. Already the tale had taken artistic form un- 
der the manipulation of the group consciousness, 
though it had not yet reached the final rounded 
version in which it would become familiar 
throughout the wilderness wherever two men 
might share the warmth of smouldering embers. 
It was the story of Fink, Carpenter and Talbeau.^ 
Only recently these men had seen Its climax; yet 
already It was charged with something of the re- 
moteness and the mystery of doom. 

There were those who remembered the old days 
on the Ohio and the Mississippi when the mutual 
love of the three boatmen was a byword In all the 
river ports. Fink was a " wild Irishman," a fa- 
mous joker and a terrible fighter, with the body 
of a Hercules and a face that suggested a bulldog. 
Men laughed freely at his jokes in those good old 
days, for It was well known that whoever neg- 
lected to laugh must be prepared for Instant bat- 
tle. Carpenter was tall, slenderly but powerfully 
built, and a blond. He smiled much, talked lit- 

1 The Western Monthly Revienv. Cincinnati, 1830. Vol. III. 



78 The Splendid Wayfaring 

tie, and fought well with a show of good nature 
that was disconcerting. Talbeau was a small 
man, but one who had once seen the three fight 
their way through a crowded dance hall on the 
lower Mississippi, spoke highly of the little man's 
terrier-like effectiveness in a scrimmage. Fink 
and Carpenter were expert marksmen, and often 
each would shoot a whisky cup from the other's 
head at a distance of forty yards by way of dem- 
onstrating both their skill and their faith in each 
other. 

These three cronies had joined Henry's expedi- 
tion of the preceding year, and had spent the win- 
ter with nine other men among the Blood Indians 
at the mouth of the Musselshell. There Fink 
and Carpenter had fallen out at last over a half- 
breed girl, and had come to blows despite the des- 
perate efforts of Talbeau to pacify them. The 
fight that followed was stubborn and long, but 
Carpenter had won, owing less to his strength and 
skill, perhaps, than to his coolness. Fink was not 
the man to forgive, and he had never before 
known defeat. 

Spring came, the Musselshell party returned to 
the fort near the mouth of the Yellowstone, and 
there the quarrel was renewed. Once more Tal- 
beau strove to pacify his friends, and with appa- 
rent success. At the little man's suggestion, the 
two big men agreed to join in the old rite of friend- 
ship — the shooting of the cup. A coin was 



The Two Parties Unite 79 

tossed for the first shot, which fell to Fink. Now 
calling Talbeau aside, Carpenter willed his gun, 
flint, powder horn, knife and blankets to the little 
man, who laughingly accepted the bequest, re- 
marking that Fink couldn't miss a target if he 
tried. Whether or not Fink missed his target 
was still a question among the tellers of the tale. 
What he hit was a spot between the eyes of his 
old friend.^ 

So in the enforced idleness of the down-stream 
journey, the men whiled away the hours by spin- 
ning yarns : 

Looped yarns wherein the veteran spinners vied 
To color with a lie more glorified 
Some thread that had veracity enough — 
Spun straightway out of Hfe's own precious stufE 
That each had scutched and heckled in the raw. 

And often in the nights of drifting, when the men 
lay huddled together on deck, gazing at the stars 
or watching the shadowy shore forge slowly to the 
rear, some French voyageur would strike up a 
well-known tune on a fiddle, setting the band to 
singing and causing the wolves and coyotes to yip 
and yammer among the bluffs. And once Major 
Henry himself, who loved the violin and handled 
It with considerable skill, played a weird air that 
sobbed like a woman, yet was very sweet to hear, 
somehow. And the men were silent, marvelling 

1 The complete story is to be found in my narrative poem, 
"The Song of Three Friends," Macmillan, 1919. 



8o The Splendid Wayfaring 

that he who played there in the starlight was the 
same Henry whom they had seen calm in battle 
and of whom so many tales of daring were told. 
It was near the end of the third week in June 
when the party, having drifted by the mouth of 
the Cannonball River, began to dread the passing 
of the Ree towns; and all tales were forgotten in 
the general discussion of that coming event. 
There were those who pointed out how the high 
bluff above the upper village, and at the foot of 
which the main current then ran, would be swarm- 
ing with Indians prepared to rake the keelboat's 
deck with a plunging fire; and others saw the 
wooded island below the lower village belching 
rifle smoke and impossible to pass. And what of 
the four hundred yards of pickets between those 
two strategic points? Over and over the imag- 
ined battle was fought; but when, in mid-after- 
noon of the next day, the keelboat swept about a 
righthand bend and swirled down a westward 
stretch with the upper Ree town to starboard, 
while the men gripped their cocked rifles, noth- 
ing serious happened. Dogs barked, villagers 
crowded on the lodge tops, and a band of unarmed 
braves, running down the beach, signalled with 
buffalo robes by way of indicating their keen de- 
sire to trade and their very benevolent intentions. 
But the keelboat swept on with the strong June 
current, and soon the babble of the towns had 
died out astern. Having drifted all night long, 



The Two Parties Unite 8i 

at sunset of the following day the party came to 
Ashley's camp near the mouth of the Cheyenne. 

We may be sure that there was great talk that 
night about the fires; and though the dominant 
theme was defeat, the glare of the embers re- 
vealed the weathered faces of many who were des- 
tined to great victories. At this distance in time 
the light upon their features is dim, but the mem- 
ory of their achievements Is like a torch flaring in 
a gloom for those who are familiar with that pe- 
riod. First of all, there was Andrew Henry, 
whose adventures in the region of the Three 
Forks and beyond the Great Divide lead one back 
to the days of Manuel Lisa and the men of Lewis 
and Clark. Near him sat Ashley, whose future 
explorations on the upper waters of the Colorado 
would fix his name in our history. Yonder was 
James Bridger, a lad of nineteen years, who would 
be the first to look upon Great Salt Lake, and 
whose career, then just beginning, would outlast 
the fur trade and the Sioux Wars, ending peace- 
fully nearly sixty years later on a Missouri farm. 
The powerfully built, gray-bearded man was 
Hugh Glass, the memory of whose amazing ad- 
ventures would preserve for posterity the record 
of Henry's important westbound expedition in the 
fall of that year. Yonder sat Fitzpatrick, soon 
to be widely known among the tribes of the West 
as " The Chief of the Withered Hand "; and not 
far away was Etienne Provost. Both of these 



82 The Splendid Wayfaring 

have been credited with the discovery of South 
Pass; but the former was doubtless the first white 
man to travel through that important gateway to 
the land beyond the Rockies. In the glow of an- 
other fire sat William L. Sublette, a tall man with 
blue eyes, sandy hair, and a Roman nose. He 
would be the first to take wagons to the mountains 
over the great natural road later to be known as 
the Oregon Trail. Here was Edward Rose, yon- 
der David Jackson and Louis Vasquez — names 
to conjure with in those days of mighty men. But 
more important than any yet named was the slen- 
der, taciturn man of twenty-live who had just re- 
turned from his hazardous journey to the Yellow- 
stone. He would be the first to travel the great 
central route to the Pacific, the first American to 
reach California by land. 

These men, with many others, who talked about 
the fires that night and are now forgotten, were 
the real explorers of the West between the route 
of Lewis and Clark and the northern boundary of 
New Mexico and Arizona. During the next two 
decades, this body of men would scatter over the 
whole Trans-Missouri country. 

During that evening General Ashley and Major 
Henry decided to move the united parties down 
stream to the mouth of the Teton, there to wait 
for the reinforcements that they hoped would be 
sent up-stream by the military authorities at Fort 
Atkinson. During Jedediah Smith's absence, the 



The Two Parties Unite 83 

keelboat Yellowstone had dropped down stream 
to Atkinson, bearing the seriously wounded men 
of Ashley's command and a message from the de- 
feated General to Colonel Leavenworth, then 
commander of that post. Coincident with the ar- 
rival of the keelboat at the fort, the tragic tale of 
another disaster to American traders came from 
Pryor's Fork of the Yellowstone. There In May, 
Jones and Immel who, as we have seen, had set 
out In advance of Henry In the spring of 1822, 
had encountered a superior number of hostile 
Blackfeet and had been killed, together with five 
of their men. The loss of property was reckoned 
at $15,000 — a large sum In those days. 

Moved by this accumulation of misfortune, 
Leavenworth acted promptly, and was now al- 
ready pushing northward to punish the Rees and 
to render the riverway safe for American traders 
and trappers. 

During the next day after the arrival of Hen- 
ry's party at the mouth of the Cheyenne, Jede- 
dlah Smith, with one companion, started out on 
another journey, being chosen to take to St. Louis 
the furs that Henry's men had collected during the 
previous fall and spring. One of the most strik- 
ing facts In this man's short and wonderful career 
was his ceaseless activity. His entry Into the fur 
trade may be likened to a plunge Into an Irresist- 
ible current that should bear him swiftly and far, 
and from which the release could be through death 



84 The Splendid Wayfaring 

alone. Such facts in human lives are not to be re- 
garded as matters of chance, but rather as mani- 
festations of temperament. Curious, capable, 
fearless, and self-contained, Smith was never the 
man to wait for events. He went forth eagerly 
to meet them. Such ever are the splendid way- 
farers of this world. 



VII 

THE LEAVENWORTH CAMPAIGN 

ON June 22nd, that is to say, at about the time 
when Major Henry reached the mouth of 
the Cheyenne, Colonel Leavenworth had started 
north from Fort Atkinson with six companies of 
the Sixth United States Infantry, consisting of 
two hundred twenty men, three keelboats, includ- 
ing the Yellowstone sent down by Ashley, and two 
six-pound cannon. Five days later Joshua Pilcher 
of the Missouri Fur Company, with sixty trappers 
and two keelboats, upon one of which a small 
howitzer was mounted, overtook the military ex- 
pedition and joined forces with it. On July 6th 
another keelboat was procured from a descending 
party of trappers. 

Owing to the very high water and continuous 
headwinds, the advance of the combined parties 
was slow. During the night of the 8th of July 
a terrific storm of wind and rain, such as all 
prairie dwellers know, drove the Yellowstone 
from her moorings and wrecked her on a sand- 
bar, where all night long in the violent downpour 
her crew struggled to save her cargo from the rag- 
ing river. Once again, as the more superstitious 

8s 



86 The Splendid Wayfaring 

voyageurs were, doubtless, not slow to note, it was 
Ashley's property that had been chosen for mis- 
fortune. Plainly, luck was no friend to the Gen- 
eral ! Two days were lost in hauling the keelboat 
ashore and repairing It. 

On July 19th the expedition arrived at Fort 
Recovery, situated on the island that lies opposite 
the present town of Oacoma, South Dakota; and 
there two small bands of Yankton and Teton 
Sioux joined the whites. Nine days later, the 
forces under Leavenworth were further increased 
by two hundred Saone and Uncpapa Sioux, who 
had reasons of their own for wishing to move 
against the Rees under circumstances apparently 
so favorable. The last day of the month was 
spent in waiting for another large band of Sioux 
Indians who had sent runners to announce their in- 
tention of joining the expedition. 

It was not until the first of August that Leaven- 
worth reached the camp of Ashley and Henry, 
who, having succeeded in procuring a supply of 
horses from the Sioux at the mouth of the Teton, 
had moved on a short distance down stream, in- 
tending to proceed overland to the Yellowstone if 
the military forces failed to arrive within a rea- 
sonable time. There were now but eighty men 
in their party, and these were placed at the dis- 
posal of Colonel Leavenworth, who proceeded at 
once to organize the motley collection of fighting 
men under his command into a military body. 



The Leavenworth Campaign 87 

The result was styled " The Missouri Legion." 
During the first week of August, the progress of 
the expedition was considerably retarded by the 
whims of the Indian allies, some of whom were in- 
clined to indulge in dog-feasts while the United 
States Army waited in advance, and others in 
large numbers insisted upon being ferried across 
the river now and then — an operation costing 
considerable time and effort. However, on the 
8th of August the Legion, being then at a point 
twenty-five miles below the Ree towns, succeeded 
at last in getting together, and the general ad- 
vance began. Considering the time, the place, 
and the strength of the foe, it was truly a formid- 
able force that Colonel Leavenworth viewed that 
day, and it must have made a pretty show as it 
moved northward. One hundred forty long- 
haired and bearded trappers in the picturesque 
semi-savage garb of the wilderness; two hundred 
twenty United States regulars in army blue; four 
hundred Sioux Indians, splendid in war-paint and 
feathers, about half of them armed with bows, 
lances and war-clubs; and in addition to these, a 
fleet of six keelboats ! Surely now the Rees were 
about to pay dearly for their treachery! 

At sunset the Legion went into camp ten miles 
nearer to its objective, and early in the morning 
of the 9th it was on the march again. " During 
the day," says the Colonel in his report to the 
War Department, " we continually received the 



88 The Splendid Wayfaring 

most strange and contradictory accounts from 
our Indians. It appeared that there were several 
Sioux living with the Aricaras and who had in- 
termarried with them. They were sent for, to 
come out and see their friends, who were coming, 
as the Sioux said, to smoke and make peace with 
the Aricaras. Some said that the villages were 
strongly fortified and furnished with ditches as 
deep as a man's chin when standing in them. At 
other times it was said that the Aricaras were so 
confident that the Sioux were coming to make 
peace with them that they had taken down their 
defences and that there was nothing to defend 
them but their dirt lodges. Nothing appeared 
certain but that the Aricaras were still in their 
villages. These contradictory stories, which were 
told by the Sioux, had the effect to create sus- 
picions of their fidelity. It was also reported 
(and there was too much reason to believe it true) 
that the Saones and Uncpapas, who were com- 
bined, had determined, in case we were defeated, 
to join the Aricaras." 

Surely a military commander has seldom been 
placed in a more precarious situation than that of 
Leavenworth; and to make matters worse, it be- 
came more and more apparent that Joshua Pilcher 
was concerned far less with the success of Leav- 
enworth's expedition than with the failure of Ash- 
ley's enterprise. Through a wily Frenchman of 
his party, one Simoneau, who seems to have been 



The Leavenworth Campaign 89 

the only interpreter available to Leavenworth in 
his relations with the Sioux, Pilcher evidently left 
nothing undone that might increase his own pres- 
tige with the Indian allies, at the same time dis- 
crediting Ashley and embarrassing the unfortu- 
nate Colonel. The following incident of the ad- 
vance, as told by Leavenworth in his official re- 
port, is typical: " Mr. Pilcher soon came to me 
with an Indian whom he reported to be an Ari- 
cara, and said that he had delivered himself up 
and claimed protection. I dismounted and dis- 
armed the Indian, and placed him under guard and 
gave his arms to a Sioux who was destitute. It 
afterwards appeared that Major Pilcher's Ari- 
cara prisoner was a Sioux who belonged to the 
Major's command! " 

It can scarcely be questioned that the Sioux 
very soon came to regard the whole affair as 
rather a lark and the white soldiers as the butt 
of a good joke. At no time was Colonel Leaven- 
worth able to control them. Having been placed 
on the flanks of the advancing force, with instruc- 
tions to keep those positions, " they were soon out 
of sight " in the direction of the villages. When 
about three miles from their objective, the soldiers 
heard brisk firing ahead, and soon met some of the 
Sioux returning pell mell with a few captured Ree 
horses. At this juncture, Pilcher turned up with 
a report that the enemy had met the Sioux near 
the villages " and had not only maintained their 



90 The Splendid Wayfaring 

ground against the Sioux, but had driven them 
back." He therefore insisted " that it was highly 
important to press forward one or two companies 
to support the Sioux, or the consequences would 
probably be prejudicial." The soldiery immedi- 
ately " set out on a run " and soon the Legion 
was within striking distance of the foe. But when 
the men were deployed in battle formation, noth- 
ing happened, owing to the unfortunate fact that 
the unruly Indian allies were ahead and obstructed 
the line of fire 1 

The enemy now withdrew into the villages, and 
the Sioux, who had succeeded in killing a few 
Rees, decided that the proper moment had arrived 
for playing the not too edifying game of " White 
Bear." " This consisted," so the Colonel tells us, 
*' of placing the skin of that animal over the shoul- 
ders of a Sioux who walked upon his hands and 
knees and endeavored to imitate the bear in his 
motions by walking around and smelling the dead 
bodies. Sometimes he would cut off small pieces 
of the flesh and eat it." 

By the time the Sioux had tired of their game, 
and when the keelboats had at last arrived with 
the artillery, night was approaching and the Col- 
onel decided to postpone further operations un- 
til the next day, August loth. 

The great day arrived; but when the soldiers 
and trappers had taken advantageous positions 
about the towns, it was remarked that " our In- 



The Leavenworth Campaign 91 

dian allies were very much scattered in the rear." 
However, the artillery opened fire. The first 
shot killed the great Ree chief, Gray Eyes, and 
the second brought down the Ree medicine pole. 
This seemed a very good beginning, indeed. A 
party under Major Ketchum was now ordered to 
advance and did so — " until ordered to halt." 
Being then within three hundred yards of the 
lower village, it occurred to the Major that the 
guns of his heroes " had been loaded for a consid- 
erable time," and that it was " desirable to dis- 
charge them." (The guns, not the heroes!) 
The guns were thereupon fired — with what effect 
we are not told. 

At this juncture Leavenworth became convinced 
that it would be well to examine the Ree defences, 
thanks to a certain Mr. McDonald who had spent 
some time in the villages. It was Mr. McDon- 
ald's opinion that the defences were so strong and 
the Rees so confident in their strength that " in 
case an assault were made, every squaw would 
count her coup (that is, kill a man)." " With a 
view to ascertaining the strength of the fortifica- 
tions," continues the Colonel, " I thought of mak- 
ing an assault upon an acute angle of the upper 
town, which I could approach within one hundred 
steps under cover of a hill. Accordingly Major 
Ketchum was ordered to advance. General Ash- 
ley with his command (trappers) was also or- 
dered to advance. He did so in the most gallant 



92 The Splendid Wayfaring 

manner. He promptly took possession of a ra- 
vine within twenty steps of the lower town and 
maintained a spirited action, well calculated to 
assist us in our design upon the upper town, by 
making a diversion in our favor." 

By this time, however, the mood of the Sioux 
seems to have dwindled from martial to bucolic. 
" For when all other things were ready," com- 
plains the sorely tried Colonel, " I was mortified 
exceedingly to learn from Mr. Pilcher that no 
assistance could be obtained from the Sioux in con- 
sequence of their being so deeply engaged in gath- 
ering corn " in the fields of the Rees! (One can 
scarcely blame them, for it was the time of roast- 
ing ears, the eating of which they naturally found 
much more pleasurable than fighting!) Leaven- 
worth thereupon decided not to proceed with the 
examination of the enemy defences; for, having 
gained the desired information, he would be com- 
pelled to fall back under cover of the hill, there 
to organize the attack; and the Sioux, being likely 
to mistake that strategic maneuver for defeat, 
might join the Rees. Furthermore, some of the 
enemy, at this time, created a counter-diversion 
by issuing from the towns and occupying a ravine 
in the rear of " our men on the hill." So the 
reconnaissance failed. 

Leavenworth now went in search of Pilcher and 
found him and his men " lying in a hollow behind 
the hill." After some conversation with the leis- 



The Leavenworth Campaign 93 

urely gentleman, the Colonel decided " to direct 
Simoneau to go as near the village as he could 
with safety, hail the Aricaras and tell them they 
were fools not to come out and speak with the 
whites." Simoneau hailed the Rees twice, and 
then said that the wind blew so hard he couldn't 
make himself heard. Whereupon the Colonel re- 
marked " that it was a matter of no consequence." 

In the meanwhile both the upper and lower vil- 
lages had been receiving a desultory shelling from 
the six-pounders and the howitzer; but, upon 
learning that only thirty-nine rounds of ammuni- 
tion remained, the Colonel commanded the artil- 
lery to cease firing in order to save the remaining 
shot for a general assault upon the towns which 
he planned to make. He then notified the Sioux, 
still hotly engaged with the serried ranks of the 
corn, that he wished them to withdraw. They 
obeyed, owing, no doubt, to the fact that they had 
gathered all the roasting ears they could carry. 
Both Ketchum and Ashley were recalled from 
their advanced positions, and a party was organ- 
ized to invade the enemy's cornfields " to obtain 
subsistence for our men, several of whom, par- 
ticularly General Ashley's command, had not had 
any provisions for two days." 

The Colonel, having every reason to believe 
that the assault upon the armies of the green corn 
would be prosecuted with conspicuous gallantry, 
retired to the cabin of his keelboat, probably to 



94 The Splendid Wayfaring 

meditate In quiet upon his victories. It was now 
mid-afternoon. " Very soon afterwards," he tells 
us, " Mr. Pilcher came Into my cabin and appar- 
ently with great alarm Informed me that Captain 
Riley was attacked. I was very glad to hear it, 
and immediately went out to send him support. 
But behold ! Captain Riley and all our men were 
very quietly coming in without the least knowledge 
of any attack being made upon them. Mr. Pil- 
cher remarked that this report was unfortunately 
too much like the case of his Arlcara prisoner! " 

An hour later, while conferring with General 
Ashley concerning operations that were to follow, 
Leavenworth saw a Sioux and an Arlcara holding 
a conversation on the plain in front of the villages. 
He sent for Pilcher and told him that the Sioux 
and Rees were holding a parley and asked him 
" to go and see to it." Pilcher moved off with his 
interpreter, SImoneau, toward the place indicated. 
Then, '' casting my eye up the hills in our rear," 
continues the Colonel's report, " I discovered that 
they were covered with the retreating Sioux, and 
I soon had reason to know that they were all going 
off. I immediately mounted my horse and went 
after Mr. Pilcher to be present at the parley with 
the Sioux and Arlcaras." 

The Rees now asked pity for their women and 
children, and said they did not want to be fired 
upon any more. Gray Eyes, who had caused all 
the mischief, was dead. The Ree chiefs wished 



The Leavenworth Campaign 95 

to talk and make peace. Leavenworth was quite 
ready to talk, and the chiefs came. " Do with 
us as you please," said they, " but do not fire any 
more guns at us. We are all in tears." The Col- 
onel replied that they must make up General Ash- 
ley's losses, and give up five principal men of their 
tribe as a guarantee of good conduct in the future. 
The chiefs agreed to restore everything possible. 
Their horses had been taken by the Sioux and 
killed in great numbers. They had no horses to 
give, but they would return all the guns they could 
find and the articles of property they had received 
from General Ashley. They would even return 
the hats ! Also, they would give five of their 
number as hostages. Accordingly, a treaty was 
signed — but not by the principal chiefs of the 
tribe, as PUcher, with some asperity, pointed out 
to the Colonel. As to General Ashley's property, 
three rifles, one horse and sixteen buffalo robes 
were returned. When the hostages arrived, 
Leavenworth refused to receive them, as they 
were evidently men of no importance. 

Thus the farce went on, Pilcher constantly play- 
ing at cross purposes with the Colonel, until, dur- 
ing the night of the 12th of August, the Rees 
fled from their villages — all except one feeble 
old squaw, the mother of the dead chief. Gray 
Eyes. There was now nothing left for Leaven- 
worth to do but to march away. During the 
night of his departure, contrary to his orders, the 



g6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

towns were fired by parties unknown, though sus- 
picion seemed to point to certain men of the Mis- 
souri Fur Company. 

On the 23rd of August, Pilcher, then at Fort 
Recovery, addressed the following letter to Col- 
onel Leavenworth: " I am well aware that hu- 
manity and philanthropy are mighty shields for 
you against those who are entirely ignorant of the 
disposition and character of the Indians; but with 
those who have experienced the fatal and ruinous 
consequences of their treachery and barbarity 
these considerations will avail nothing. You 
came to restore peace and tranquillity to the coun- 
try, and to leave an impression which would insure 
its continuance. Your operations have been such 
as to produce the contrary effect, and to impress 
the different tribes with the greatest contempt for 
the American character. You came (to use your 
own language) * to open and make good this great 
road '; instead of which you have, by the imbecil- 
ity of your conduct and operations, created and 
left impassable barriers." 

So ended the first campaign of the United 
States Army against the Indians of the Plains. 
The forces under Leavenworth's command, in- 
cluding the trappers and the Sioux, had numbered 
slightly over one thousand. The Ree villages at 
that time contained about seven hundred war- 
riors and something over three thousand old men, 
squaws and children. Two white men had been 



The Leavenworth Campaign 97 

wounded and two of the Sioux killed, while the 
Rees had lost no more than thirty, some of whom 
were women and children. The cost of the cam- 
paign to the United States Government was com- 
puted at $2,038.24. 

It was a Gilbert and Sullivan opera without the 
rhymes and the music, Pilcher playing the role of 
the heavy villain. But perhaps Colonel Leaven- 
worth should not be too greatly blamed for the 
fiasco. His conduct at the battles of Chippewa 
and Niagara Falls in the War of 18 12 amply 
proves that he had no lack of courage; and we 
have George Catlin's word for it that the manner 
of his death, some years later, was noble. In his 
campaign against the Rees he was the victim of 
commercial rivalry. 

Nevertheless, one wonders what might have 
been the result if an officer like Crook had been in 
command. Or Custer! Fancy Pilcher, or any 
other man, playing at ducks and drakes with him 
who humbled the Cheyenne on the Washita, and 
died with all his men on the bluffs along the Little 
Big Horn! 



VIII 

WESTWARD BY THE GRAND 

NOW that the Ree campaign was over, Gen- 
eral Ashley returned to St. Louis, and 
Major Henry, with an inadequate number of 
horses that had been purchased from the Sioux, 
set out by way of the Grand River valley for his 
post at the mouth of the Yellowstone. Jedediah 
Smith, who had but recently returned from St. 
Louis, accompanied the expedition. 

Two hundred men had gone north in the two 
Ashley-Henry parties of 1822 and 1823 ; and now, 
in mid-August of the latter year, the number had 
dwindled to one hundred, counting those left by 
Henry at the mouth of the Yellowstone. But 
hardship and calamity had tested these; the frailer 
spirits had been eliminated by natural selection; 
and it was the pick of the fur trade that rode 
away from the Missouri in the waning summer. 
Thus the resistance of the Rees, that in itself 
might seem an insignificant episode, is raised to a 
position of historical importance when viewed in 
relation to the westward race-movement; for that 
tribe of savages had acted as the principal agent 
in a sifting process, out of which should come 

98 



Westward by the Grand 99 

sturdy spirits fit to lead the van of the Aryan peo- 
ples on the last lap of the long journey from 
Mesopotamia to where the sun goes down in the 
Pacific. 

However, it was not as conscious forerunners 
of civilization that these men went forth; and 
that they should ever be regarded as benefactors 
of the human race could not have occurred to the 
generality of them. The two great forces that 
have caused all folk-wanderings impelled them — 
the economic urge and the perennial human curi- 
osity that is basic in the love of adventure. The 
leaders, with the single exception of Jedediah 
Smith, were doubtless in their own estimation 
merely traders and trappers, out for the precious 
beaver pelts with which to buy what no man ever 
purchased at a price — happiness; and the rank, 
and file, receiving from $150 to $300 per year, 
were lured on by the witchery of danger and the 
free life of the wilderness. Their heroism was 
a mere by-product; yet it alone has enriched the 
race, while the beaver fur, that seemed all im- 
portant at the time, has returned to dust. 

In " Lord Jim " Joseph Conrad has the fol- 
lowing passage, which, though it refers to wander- 
ers on the Seven Seas, is peculiarly applicable to 
these early explorers of the Far West: " To us, 
their less tried successors, they appear magnified, 
not as agents of trade, but as instruments of a 
recorded destiny, pushing out into the unknown in 



lOO The Splendid Wayfaring 

obedience to an inward voice, to an impulse beat- 
ing in the blood, to a dream of the future." 

Our common human nature may be greater than 
we know ! 

Were it possible for us now to look backward 
(unaided by the imagination), and glimpse with 
the naked eye those eighty men pushing westward 
in the broiling day amid the dust kicked up by 
the sweating pack animals, we would probably 
consider them somewhat grotesque in appearance. 
Some of those who had come up with Ashley that 
spring were still clad in the garb of civilization 
( sadly in need of patches ! ) . Others of the same 
band had already been forced to discard a por- 
tion of their original clothing, and now wore an 
incongruous combination of Indian and white 
man's clothing. Those who had wintered at the 
mouth of the Yellowstone had long since shed the 
clothes with which they had started from St. 
Louis, and, having adopted the whole Indian 
costume, with the exception, perhaps, of a blue 
cotton shirt procured from the keelboats, could 
scarcely be distinguished, at a distance of a hun- 
dred yards, from the wild natives. Many of 
these wore deerskin leggings that left the hips and 
thighs bare save for a cloth that was folded 
around the loins and tucked under the girdle. 
From this girdle were suspended leather bags 
containing hunting knife, hatchet, flint and steel, 
pipe and tobacco, or any smaller articles of per- 



Westward by the Grand loi 

sonal use which, in the jargon of the trapper, were 
known as " fixins " or " possibles." A buckskin 
belt, slung over the left shoulder and under the 
right arm, carried the ammunition for the long 
muzzle-loading rifle. Vari-colored fringes, em- 
broideries done in beads and hair, dyed feathers 
and a variety of other savage ornaments set off 
this strange attire. Some were still wearing 
boots and shoes, but most, either through neces- 
sity or whim, had adopted the moccasin wrought 
of a single piece of dressed buckskin sewed from 
heel to ankle with deer sinew and gathered from 
toe to instep. Large red or blue cotton handker- 
chiefs, tied in the shape of a turban, served most 
of these men for headgear.^ 

But however hit-and-miss these men might ap- 
pear, there was nothing haphazard about the man- 
ner of their progress; for as a result of his ex- 
periences in the wilderness, Major Henry had 
worked out a complete technique for the moving 
of bodies of men through hostile Indian country. 
The organization of the band, the duties of each 
unit, the order of march, and the method of mak- 
ing camp were as much a matter of rigid plan as 
was the case with a Roman legion under Caesar. 
General Ashley has left us the following account 
of such arrangements : ^ 

** In the organization of a party, say from sixty 
to eighty men, four of the most confidential and 

1 Encyclopedia of St. Louis, quoted by Chittenden. 

2 Chittenden, " History of the American Fur Trade." Vol. III. 



I02 The Splendid Wayfaring 

experienced of the number are selected to aid In 
the command; the rest are divided Into messes of 
eight or ten. A suitable man Is also appointed at 
the head of each mess, whose duty It Is to make 
known the wants of his mess, receive supplies for 
them, make distributions, watch over their con- 
duct, enforce orders, etc. The party thus or- 
ganized, each man receives the horses and mules 
allotted to him, their equipage, and the packs 
which his mules are to carry. Every article so 
disposed of Is entered In a book kept for that 
purpose. When the party reaches the Indian 
country, great order and vigilance In the discharge 
of their duty are required of every man. A va- 
riety of circumstances confines the march very 
often to the borders of large water courses. 
When that Is the case, It is found convenient and 
safe, when the ground will admit, to locate our 
camps (which are generally laid off In a square) 
so as to make the river form one line, and Include 
as much ground In It as may be sufficient for the 
whole number of horses, allowing for each a range 
of thirty feet In diameter. 

" On the arrival of the party at their camping 
place, the position of each mess Is pointed out, 
where their packs, saddles, etc., are taken off, and 
with these a breastwork is Immediately put up to 
cover them from a night attack by Indians. The 
horses are then watered and delivered to the 
horse-guards, who keep them on the best grass 



Westward by the Grand 103 

outside and near the encampment, where they 
graze until sunset. Then each man brings his 
horses within the limits of the camp, exchanges 
the light halter for the other more substantial 
one, sets his stakes, which are placed at the dis- 
tance of thirty feet from each other, and secures 
his horses to them. This range of thirty feet, 
in addition to the grass the horse has collected 
outside the camp, will be sufficient for him during 
the night. 

" After these regulations, the proceedings for 
the night are pretty much the same as are prac- 
ticed in military camps. At daylight (when in 
dangerous parts of the country) two or more men 
are mounted on horseback and sent to examine 
ravines, woods, hills, and other places within 
striking distance of the camp, where Indians 
might secrete themselves, before the men are al- 
lowed to leave their breastworks to make the nec- 
essary morning arrangements for the march. 
When these spies report favorably, the horses are 
taken outside the camp, delivered to the horse- 
guard, and allowed to graze until the party has 
breakfasted, and are ready for saddHng. 

*' In the line of march, each mess takes its 
choice of position in the line according to its ac- 
tivity in making ready to move. The mess first 
ready to march moves up in the rear of an officer, 
who marches in the front of the party, and takes 
its choice of position; and so they all proceed until 



I04 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the line is formed. In that way they march the 
whole of that day. Spies are sent out several 
miles ahead to examine the country in the vicinity 
of the route, and others are kept at the distance 
of a half mile or more from the party, as the lay 
of the ground seems to require, in front, in rear 
and on the flanks. In making discoveries of In- 
dians, they communicate the same by signals, or 
otherwise, to the commanding oflicer, who makes 
his arrangements accordingly." 

In this manner the band had moved two days 
up the Grand River, making fairly good time in 
spite of the fact that most of the men were 
afoot, the horses purchased from the Sioux being 
needed for the packs of merchandise brought up 
in Ashley's keelboats. It yet lacked two hours 
until sunset when, weary with the long day's jour- 
ney in the broiling sun, the party rounded a bend 
and saw, a little way ahead, a lone horse, unsad- 
dled and tethered, peacefully nipping the lush 
grass of a pleasant knoll that flanked the stream. 
Sitting, nearby, a gray-bearded, powerfully built 
man was leisurely skinning a buck deer. From 
the lower limbs of a neighboring tree hung three 
antelope, already dressed. 

A cheer went up from the hungry men in the 
van, and, running down the column, set the pack 
horses nickering. The old man was Hugh Glass, 
the chief hunter of the party, whose duty it was 
to ride well in advance of his comrades and have 



Westward by the Grand 105 

fresh meat waiting on a likely camping spot when 
the band should come up in the evening. 

The place is soon filled with the bustle and 
noise of eighty men and fifty horses. The pack- 
ers, halting their animals on three sides of a 
square, the fourth being the river, uncinch the 
horses and place their packs on the ground so as 
to form a breastwork. The horses roll in the 
cool grass, grunting and whinnying by way of ex- 
pressing their satisfaction. Now the horse- 
guards take charge of the herd, leading it to water 
and good grazing outside the camp. Meanwhile, 
details from each mess are gathering dry wood and 
building fires, while others are portioning out the 
meat and preparing it for supper. Those who 
have no special duties today have already stripped 
and are splashing and laughing boisterously in a 
pool nearby, like the light-hearted boys that many 
of them are. Now the kettles are bubbling over 
the fires and the pleasant smell of meat is in the 
air. The sun drops slowly behind the bluffs and 
a grateful shade falls cool and blue along the val- 
ley. Now at last the meal is ready, and the men 
fall to with Homeric appetites. 

Pipes were out and lit, and some of the men 
had begun to sing, when a scout came galloping 
up with a tale of Rees. He had caught sight of 
two Indians peering down upon him from a bluff 
top an hour since; and he was convinced that they 
were the spies of a war party that planned to 



io6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

attack under cover of the darkness. The singing 
stopped. The horse-guards were called in, and 
the horses securely staked within the hollow 
square, while the men were assigned to their 
places behind the baggage. The fires were put 
out and the soft starry August gloom deepened 
over the camp. One man in each mess having 
been detailed for guard duty, the rest were per- 
mitted to sleep with their loaded rifles beside 
them. 

Hour after hour passed, and still, as the watch- 
men peered into the darkness, nothing moved, for 
it was a windless night. They heard the nipping 
and blowing of the contented horses. Now and 
then wolves howled or an owl screeched. The 
sleepy stars swarmed westward, and the Dipper 
pointed midnight on the polar dial. Still noth- 
ing happened. The sleepy watches grumbled to 
each other and in low undertones said uncompli- 
mentary things of Indians in general, of the Rees 
in particular, and of Colonel Leavenworth for 
having failed to make a clean job of the late cam- 
paign. 

Another hour passed. Then one of the horses, 
with head held high, began to snort and blow. 
The whole herd stopped grazing and, with ears 
pricked forward, stared up the starlit slope to the 
southward toward where a thicket of plum and 
buUberry loomed black. Somewhere not far off 



Westward by the Grand 107 

a horse neighed, and the nervous herd answered 
in unison. 

Scarcely had each sentry wakened his mess with 
the one word, " Injuns," when there broke out of 
the hush the running crack of rifle fire and the 
whee-00-plunk of a flight of arrows falling all 
about the camp. Some trapper swore in a shrill 
note of pain. Then the mingled howl of many 
savage voices swept down the hillside, and with 
the rumble of galloping hoofs the attack was 
launched upon the trappers. 

Hoivgh! Howgh! Howgh! Howgh! On came 
the howling riders, shadowy in the starlight and 
seeming the more formidable for their vagueness. 
Scarcely heard above the tumult of the terrified 
horses, some of which had been struck by arrows, 
the men behind the baggage were shouting to 
each other to wait until the foe was close. Only 
three or four rifles went off prematurely. 

Surely in a moment more the charge would 
sweep right over the camp ! 

The whole breastwork of baggage blazed and 
roared. The shadowy ponies in front reared 
screaming. Some collapsed like figures in a 
dream, and through the spreading smoke of the 
rifles the trappers, hastily reloading, saw the scat- 
tered war-party flying back up the slope. With a 
yell the white men leaped over the baggage and, 
rushing in among the fallen Indian ponies, " lifted 



io8 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the hair " of the dead and wounded Rees. They 
came back with a half dozen scalps. 

When the excitement had abated and an exam- 
ination of the camp was made, two trappers, An- 
derson and Neil, were found dead. Also, the old 
veteran, he of the many tales, coolly announced 
that he had an arrow in his " hump-ribs " that 
would have to be " butchered out," as he ex- 
pressed it — an operation which, after lighting his 
pipe, he underwent without an outcry. Several 
of the horses had been wounded and some would 
be lame. 

In the morning, while the herd was grazing out- 
side the camp and the cooks were getting break- 
fast ready, Neil and Anderson were buried, the 
ceremony consisting of a prayer by Jed Smith, 
who, according to the concensus of opinion, seemed 
most likely to be heard. Very little was said 
about the two for whom a permanent camp had 
been made there by the Grand. They had been 
*' out of luck " and they were " rubbed out." So 
it was. 

All that day, and for two days thereafter, the 
party pushed on up the river valley, encountering 
no more Indians. Evidently the Rees had de- 
cided that Henry's men asked too high a price 
for their animals, and had therefore gone in 
search of a cheaper market. The progress of 
the band was a bit slower now, for the wounded 
horses did well to follow bare-backed, and their 



Westward hy the Grand 109 

packs were distributed among the rest of the herd 
that had been heavily laden from the start. 

It was not until evening of the third day after 
the attack that misfortune came again. The 
band had been toiling all day under a blazing sun, 
hoping to reach the forks of the Grand for the 
night encampment; and as the time for halting 
drew near, the men began to watch eagerly for 
Hugh Glass. Bend after bend was rounded, and 
each bend brought a fresh disappointment. The 
men began to grumble. What could be the mat- 
ter with old Glass? Did he expect them to march 
all night without supper? At length as the sun 
was nearing the horizon Major Henry called a 
halt, and the men, sullen at the prospect of supper 
without fresh meat, began to make camp. They 
had not gone far with their preparations, how- 
ever, when young Bridger, who, with Fitzpatrick, 
had been riding in advance that day, came up at a 
brisk gallop; and the trappers, noting his haste, 
leaped to the conclusion that they were in for 
another encounter with the Rees. 

But it was a very different tale that Bridger 
had to tell. He and Fitzpatrick, while riding 
near the forks of the river two hours since, had 
pushed through a bullberry thicket near a spring 
and had come suddenly upon old Glass lying as 
though dead, with a bloody hunting knife beside 
him. Not far away lay the carcass of a grizzly 
bear. The old man's face was " all scraped off," 



no The Splendid Wayfaring 

as Bridger put it; '' and when we lifted him, one 
of his legs went wobbly and he groaned." It was 
evident that the old hunter had been taken by 
surprise and had not been able to " set his trig- 
ger," for his gun was still loaded and the great 
gashes in the bear's neck, chest and belly showed 
how Hugh had fought. Doubtless he had dis- 
mounted to drink at the spring, and his horse, 
terrified by the grizzly, had bolted. '' We tried 
to put him on a horse," said Bridger, " but he 
screamed, though he didn't seem to know nothing; 
and so Fitz said he'd stay with the old man while 
I came back." 

It was, of course, impractical to move the whole 
party on to the forks at that late hour, so the 
Major sent two men back with Bridger to watch 
over old Glass until the main body should come 
up next day. It was commonly believed in camp 
that night that the old man was " done for "; but 
when the party arrived at the forks next morning, 
he was still living though he had not regained 
consciousness. What should be done? As 
Bridger had stated, it was impossible to move 
him; and certainly the whole expedition could not 
be delayed indefinitely while one man decided 
whether or not he was going to die. Finally two 
men were induced, by the offer of a liberal reward, 
to remain with the wounded man until he could 
be placed either on a horse or under the ground. 
Then the main body, impatient at the delay, be- 



Westward by the Grand ill 

cause the way before them was long and the 
scarcity of horses made their progress slow, 
struck out for the Yellowstone over practically 
the same route that Jed and Baptiste had taken 
in June.^ 

Ill luck still followed Henry. Scarcely had the 
party crossed the desolate country through which 
the upper waters of the Little Missouri run, and 
entered the valley of the Yellowstone, when a 
large war party of Indians, thought to be Gros 
Ventres, swooped down upon it. During the 
brisk fight that followed, four trappers were 
killed and several more horses were wounded. 

During the evening of the day after the battle, 
the two men who had been left to watch over old 
Glass at the forks of the Grand, rode their fagged 
horses into camp, and the saddle of the horse they 
led was empty. Few words were expected from 
them by their comrades. They said that they 
had remained at the forks four days; then old 
Hugh had " gone under " and had been decently 
buried. They had brought all his '* fixins " away 
with them, including gun, blanket, powder-horn, 
knife, and flint and steel. The story they brought 
occasioned no surprise, and little sorrow was di- 
rectly expressed, though many spoke kindly of the 
dead that night, remembering much good of the 

iThe Missouri Intelligencer, June i8, 1825; Sage's "Scenes 
in the Rocky Mountains"; Ruxton's "Adventures in Mexico"; 
Howe's "Hist. Collections of the Great West"; Cooke's "Scenes 
in the U. S. Army." 



112 TJie Splendid Wayfaring 

graybearded old hunter — how cool he had been 
in the Ree fight, the droll things he had said on 
such and such occasions, feats of strength he had 
performed when a keelboat had grounded on a 
bar, and many lesser matters such as make men 
love men. 

Well, the old fellow was " rubbed out " at last, 
but it took a grizzly bear to do the job, and that 
was something. It would have been worth a 
year's wages to see that bear-fight! So it was. 
You never knew when your time might come. 
Thereupon the camp slept. 

Pushing on down the Yellowstone without meet- 
ing any further resistance, Henry arrived at his 
post to find that, during his absence, the Blackfeet 
and Assiniboines had driven oft twenty-two of the 
horses he had left there. Within a few days 
after his arrival seven more were stolen by the 
Assiniboines. Obviously, the chances for success- 
ful operations in that vicinity were slight. So the 
Major decided to abandon the post and move 
back up the Yellowstone into the country of the 
Crows who, owing to the hostility existing between 
them and the Blackfeet, generally welcomed the 
trappers, not only as allies against their ancient 
foes, but also as a ready source of ammunition. 
Furthermore, the presence of Edward Rose, who, 
as has been noted, had won a high place in the 
tribe, would doubtless do much to insure a friendly 
reception for the hitherto luckless band. 

It will be remembered that twenty men were 




Courtesy of Prof. S. H. Knight, University of Wyoming 

The Great Divide Basin, which Ashley Crossed on His Way 
to Green River 





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Bpip!d'-.-^ 


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The Three Forks of the Missouri River (see page 27] 



Westward by the Grand 113 

left In charge of the fort when Henry descended 
the Missouri to reinforce Ashley's party below 
the Ree towns. Having set out from the mouth 
of the Grand with eighty men, and having lost 
seven on the way, he now had ninety-three under 
his command — a formidable party, sadly ham- 
pered, however, by the insufficient number of its 
horses. Heartened by this new hope of a peace- 
ful winter among a friendly people, the trappers 
marched southwestward up the valley of the Yel- 
lowstone for several days. Already there had 
been heavy night-frosts, and flocks of blackbirds, 
brawling in the thickets, proclaimed the coming 
of the winter. They were travelling now through 
a region of ready feasts. Bison and deer and 
antelope were plentiful; and often, topping a rise 
for a long gaze, they saw great herds of what 
seemed at first to be mules, and were elk. Every 
evening the hunters came in with goodly horse- 
loads of fresh meat, so that there was singing as 
the sun went down, and in the warmth and glow 
of the embers the men remembered many tales. 

Then one day it seemed that bad luck, like a 
huge cat, had only been playing with them, allow- 
ing a brief respite from care that the next pounce 
might be crushing. Toward evening the advance 
guard came galloping back to report a large war 
party of Indians some two or three miles ahead. 
GrumbHng and sullen, the trappers began to pre- 
pare for another battle, unsaddling the pack ani- 



114 The Splendid Wayfaring 

mals and making a breastwork of the baggage. 
While they were thus engaged, three Indian horse- 
men suddenly appeared on a bluff-top several hun- 
dred yards away. They were making signs of 
peace, and Rose, believing them to be Crows, 
mounted and rode toward them. After having 
covered half the distance to the bluff, he paused to 
exchange signs with the three strangers, then, 
pricking his horse, he hastened to join those on the 
bluff-top. Anxiously the camp watched the panto- 
mime on the height where an animated confab was 
evidently in progress; and there were many who 
questioned the loyalty of the ex-pirate. Might 
he not betray them to his adopted people that he 
might win more prestige with the tribe? How- 
ever, Henry, who had known the man In the early 
days of the Missouri Fur Company, had no such 
fears. 

Rose galloped back at length, bringing the best 
of news. The three on the bluff had proven to 
be old friends of his, members of a Crow war 
party returning with many horses from a foray 
into the Blackfoot country. They welcomed the 
whites Into their land, and wished nothing better 
than to trade, for they were in need of many 
things, especially powder and ball with which to 
meet their enemies on the north. 

When the Crows came up and went Into camp 
a short distance away, that which had been re- 
ported as a large war party was seen to consist 



Westward by the Grand 115 

of no more than twenty five braves, but the horses 
they drove were many. The night was given over 
to feasting and trade; and, through old Rose as 
interpreter, the trappers and Indians exchanged 
tales of prowess, backed upon both sides by an 
eloquent display of scalps — Blackfoot, Gros 
Ventre, Ree ! Had the white men fought, and 
did they hate the Blackfeet with a big hate? It 
was enough. The Crows would be friends for- 
ever ! 

In the morning when the two parties took up 
the march again, both were richer and happier 
than on the day before, though their combined 
wealth was no greater; for the Indians might now 
meet their foes with plenty of powder, and the 
trappers, with all the horses they could use, were 
entering a friendly country rich in beaver. 



IX 

JED V^T^ESTLES WITH DEATH 

IT was now time for the fall hunt to begin, and 
accordingly it was decided that a small party 
should strike southward along the eastern border 
of the Crow country, locating the richest beaver 
streams and trapping on the way, while the main 
body should move on up the Yellowstone to the 
mouth of the Big Horn, there to establish winter 
quarters. At the mouth of the Powder sixteen 
men were told off for this undertaking, William 
L. Sublette being one of the number. Jed Smith 
and Thomas FItzpatrIck were placed in command. 
Bidding farewell to their comrades, these 
pushed southward up the valley of the Powder. 
Beaver sign was fairly plentiful. Traps set in the 
evening generally yielded satisfactory returns In 
the morning; and the better part of each after- 
noon was spent In skinning the catch and prepar- 
ing the pelts. Travelling leisurely thus through 
a region where fresh meat could be procured with 
little difficulty, the men worked contentedly to- 
ward the Big Horn Mountains that at length be- 
gan to lift clearer and clearer in the southwest. 
Here Indeed was life such as these young fellows 

ii6 



Jed Wrestles with Death 117 

had dreamed of In the humdrum of the settle- 
ments. Autumn brooded goldenly on the vast 
land of no restraint. How glorious to be young 
and free! 

For a week the party kept together; then 
Smith, with five men, struck out westward. Fitz- 
patrick, with the balance of the trappers, kept on 
up the valley, hoping to fall in with the Crow 
nation then on its fall buffalo hunt in the region 
between the headwaters of the Powder and the 
North Fork of the Platte. Smith was to explore 
the country westward, trapping on the upper 
reaches of the Tongue and Rosebud as he went, 
and meet Fitzpatrick returning by way of the 
Big Horn, whence the reunited bands should pro- 
ceed to winter quarters on the Yellowstone. 

For several days Smith and his men worked 
slowly up a small tributary stream that came down 
from the divide between the Powder and the 
Tongue, and the hunting was good. Then one 
evening Jed met with an accident that seemed 
likely to end his dream of the great mysterious 
white spaces beyond the Rockies. He had been 
setting a trap at the margin of the creek and was 
pushing up through the brush that fringed the 
bank, when a huge hairy form towered growling 
above him. 

There followed a period of torturing dreams; 
and when he awoke it was night and he was lying 
beside a fire with his shadowy comrades leaning 



1 1 8 The Splendid Wayfaring 

over him. There was a roaring ache in his head, 
and at intervals a stabbing pain shot through one 
of his hips. He had been felled with a blow 
from the paw of a grizzly, his thigh had been 
badly mangled, and he was in a fair way to be 
rubbed out when his comrades, who were setting 
traps in the vicinity, had rushed to his rescue and 
killed the bear. 

As in the case of old Hugh Glass, it was plain 
enough that Jed, though conscious, would be un- 
able to travel for many days; and that night it 
was decided that three of the party should go in 
pursuit of Fitzpatrick, the two others remaining 
to watch over the wounded man. For several 
days after the departure of the three, things went 
well enough in the camp by the nameless creek; 
and though it was evident that Jed's recovery 
would be slow, and though signs of approaching 
winter were not lacking, there seemed to be little 
reason for uneasiness. The Rees and Blackfeet 
were far away, and the Gros Ventres were doubt- 
less hunting buffalo on the plains bordering the 
Missouri. Deer and antelope abounded in the 
broken country round about; so there would be 
no lack of fresh meat, and Jed's companions 
could profitably spend the time of waiting in col- 
lecting beaver pelts. 

But one evening, a half hour or so after the 
two men had gone up-stream to set their traps, 
leaving their horses staked near the camp, Jed 



Jed Wrestles with Death 119 

heard a number of shots, fired In rapid succession, 
and a medley of wild cries. The sounds came 
from the direction in which his comrades had gone. 
Considering the number of shots and voices, there 
was but one conclusion to draw. Seizing his rifle 
and powder-horn, Jed, at the cost of excruciating 
pain, dragged himself into the midst of a thicket 
nearby and waited breathlessly. Very soon there 
was a crashing of the brush up-stream, and a 
dozen Indians in war paint came cantering down 
the creek. Catching sight of the camp and the 
three grazing horses, the band halted, dismounted, 
and, gabbling excitedly in a tongue that Jed did 
not recognize, proceeded to appropriate the ani- 
mals and whatever articles of equipment that 
struck their fancy. 

During this time several were poking about In 
the brush with the muzzles of their guns, and Jed 
had decided that his last hour on earth was about 
to end, when, at a command from one of the 
party, they all leaped upon their horses and gal- 
loped off down stream. But during the few mo- 
ments when the camp was being looted, the 
wounded man in the brush had seen that which 
told a tragic story — two dripping scalps, the hair 
of which he recognized only too well ! 

The dusk fell with a penetrating chill and the 
long and terrible night began. Jed crawled out 
of his hiding place, and after much patient indus- 
try, accompanied by torture, he managed to gather 



120 The Splendid Wayfaring 

together a small heap of dry twigs. But though 
he had a flint and steel he struck no fire, lest the 
Indians, camping in the vicinity, might return. 
The blankets had gone with the rest of the equip- 
ment, and there in that chill immensity the sick 
man shivered, thinking of his dead comrades and 
haunted with the most gloomy forebodings. 
Would Fitzpatrick return that way before it was 
too late? How many days would it take to die 
of starvation? How many nights like this could 
one endure? Why endure the cold any longer? 
Why fear sudden death at the hands of savages, 
with that slow death waiting at the end of many 
days and nights of suffering? 

By and by in the wee hours of the morning he 
made a fire, and heartened by its cheerful glow 
and warmth, he thanked God that, for all his woe, 
he had not only his rifle, knife, and flint and steel, 
but, what was more, the much worn copy of the 
Bible which he always carried in a pocket of his 
hunting shirt — a practice which had occasioned 
considerable sly merriment among his less pious 
comrades. 

For awhile now he strove to read by the dancing 
light, and his memory supplied what he could not 
follow with his eyes. " He is chastened also with 
pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones 
with strong pain. . . . Yea, his soul draweth near 
to the grave, and his life to the destroyers. . . . 
His flesh shall be fresher than a child's; he shall 



Jed Wrestles with Death 121 

return to the days of his youth. He shall pray 
unto God and He will be favorable unto him. . . ." 

Jed fell into an uneasy sleep. When he awoke, 
the fire was out, but the dawn had come. In the 
new light the old sustaining faith came on him 
like a revelation. God was in the world as much 
as ever, and He would provide. Yonder ran pure 
water — a tremendous blessing. As for food, 
doubtless his comrades had set traps nearby, and 
there is much poorer food than beaver flesh. 

Having prayed earnestly for strength to endure 
the pain he was about to suffer, he dragged him- 
self along the bank, keeping a sharp lookout for 
traps. The first was empty, and the second also. 
Appalled at the pain that his venture was costing 
him, he lay still for some time, nursing the fore- 
bodings of the night. But at length prayer 
strengthened him, and he began to drag himself 
again. The third trap contained a beaver; but 
it was an hour before Jed succeeded in bringing 
it ashore by means of a forked branch cut from 
the brush. 

It was nearly noon when he finished his break- 
fast; and for hours he lay exhausted, dreading the 
passing of the day. Then at length, when the sun 
was nearing the western horizon, he began to col- 
lect fuel for the night. 

The next day he fasted, for he found no beaver; 
and still another day came and went without food. 
Game seemed suddenly to have deserted the re- 



122 The Splendid Wayfaring 

glon, that his trial might be the greater. He 
turned to the Book for courage. "I will lift up 
mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my 
help. My help cometh from the Lord which 
made heaven and earth. . . . The Lord shall pre- 
serve thee from evil. . . ." 

In the early morning of the third day of fast- 
ing Jed's prayers were answered. He wakened 
suddenly, rubbed his eyes, and saw a buck deer 
drinking at the stream an easy rifle-shot away. 
Without lifting his head he reached for the loaded 
gun that lay beside him, and turning on his side, 
took careful aim just behind the shoulder of the 
buck. At the roar of the gun it went down, 
floundering in the mud, and then was still. 

Praising the goodness of God, he feasted that 
day; and having feasted, he dragged himself up 
the torturing slope of a nearby hillock, and lying 
there, he searched the empty distances all day 
long. Nothing appeared but a flock of crows. 

But answered prayer had enormously strength- 
ened the old faith in him. What if Fitzpatrick 
did not return? No man who knows God can 
be alone, and a way would be made. Doubtless 
his hip would heal enough before the winter set 
in so that he might make his way alone to the 
mouth of the Big Horn. 

For three days he fed from the flesh of the 
buck, keeping constant watch over a flock of crows 
that were bent upon robbing his larder, and fright- 



Jed Wrestles with Death 123 

ening them away whenever they swooped down. 
Then what remained of the meat went putrid, and 
the crows, in a noisy black cloud, soon stripped 
the bones clean. Jed watched them and won- 
dered how long it would be before they should be 
feasting on human flesh. 

He spent the two following days upon the hil- 
lock without food. Once a herd of antelope ap- 
peared a half mile away. For hours they re- 
mained in sight, peacefully grazing; then they dis- 
appeared. The third day after his meat supply 
had failed, he did not attempt to climb out of the 
creek bottom, and somehow his prayers seemed 
feeble. He thought much now of the home folks 
back in Ashtabula, Ohio, and there were times 
when he visualized them all with a startling clear- 
ness. Would he ever see them with his eyes 
again? 

" The Lord is my shepherd," he read; " I shall 
not want. He maketh me to lie down In green 
pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters. 
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the 
shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou 
art with me." These words, oft repeated, added 
power to his prayers; and during the fourth day 
after the crows had picked the carcass, God 
seemed to hear again, for three deer came down 
to the creek to drink some two hundred yards 
away. But when Jed took aim, the mark danced 
about giddily. He fired. A jet of water arose 



124 The Splendid Wayfaring 

ten yards short of the drinking animals, that 
crashed through the brush and disappeared. He 
turned to the Book for strength with which to 
bear this disappointment. " Thou preparest a 
table before me in the presence of mine ene- 
mies. . . ." 

Was he being mocked? What had he done 
that the Almighty should desert him? Earnestly 
now he implored forgiveness for his sins that he 
might die in peace; and a soothing quiet came 
upon him. 

The next day Colonel Keemle of the Missouri 
Fur Company, led by the three who had gone in 
search of Fitzpatrick, came riding up the creek 
with a band of trappers. These were the sur- 
vivors of the Blackfoot disaster on Pryor's Fork 
of the Yellowstone during the previous spring, 
when Jones and Immel had been slain. 

By securing a blanket across two poles, the ends 
of which were fastened to the pack saddles of two 
of the more docile horses, a litter was made for 
Jed, whose wounds, despite his lack of food, had 
healed sufficiently to admit of travel. Pushing 
westward across the upper waters of the Tongue, 
Keemle's party came to the camp of a roving band 
of Cheyennes, and there, in a few days, came Fitz- 
patrick and his men. They had met and travelled 
for some days with the Crows who would soon 
return to the mouth of the Big Horn for the 
winter. 



Jed Wrestles with Death 125 

Fitzpatrick had conceived a big idea during his 
absence; and, riding beside the horse-litter as the 
party travelled down the valley of the Little Big 
Horn toward winter quarters, he and Jed eagerly 
discussed plans for a spring expedition. A Crow 
chief had told how, following up the Sweetwater, 
which flows into the North Fork of the Platte, 
one would come to a break in the Wind River 
Mountains through which one might travel as 
easily as over open prairie down to the Siskadee 
Agie,^ as the Indians called Green River. So 
plentiful were the beaver yonder, the Crow chief 
had said, that traps were not needed; one could 
knock over all one wanted with a club ! ^ 

How this story must have fired the imagination 
of the wounded man! Here, at last, was news 
from the mysterious white spaces ! The gates to 
the world of his dream were about to swing wide ! 

A keen northwind was bringing the winter when 
they reached the Yellowstone. There near the 
mouth of the Big Horn, and not far from the 
abandoned post that Manuel Lisa had built six- 
teen years before, snug winter quarters had been 
erected by Henry's men. Shortly after the ar- 
rival of Smith and Fitzpatrick, a party that had 
been sent northwest into the country of the Black- 
feet returned with more thrilling tales than beaver. 

Thus united again, Henry's men settled down 

1 Meaning " Sage Hen River." 

2 Article by " Solitaire " in St. Louis Weekly Reveille, March 
1st, 1847. 



126 The Splendid Wayfaring 

for the winter, trapping the streams of the region 
and trading with the Crows, who had come up 
from the south and pitched their skin lodges 
nearby. 



THE GHOST 

THE new year, 1824, arrived in the midst of 
tremendous blizzards, and for weeks the 
trappers had nothing to do but to eat, sleep, sing, 
clog to a voyageur^s fiddling, and to swap yarns. 
The latter occupation offered the best avenue of 
escape from tedium; for man is so constituted that 
he is never really happy except when creative, and 
yarning, as these men understood it, was, at its 
best, certainly much more than a memory exer- 
cise! The craving for sensation during those 
shut-in days and nights, together with the keen 
spirit of rivalry that grew up among the story- 
tellers, often spurred them on to splendid men- 
dacities. The old veteran from the Southwest 
was perhaps the most successful practitioner of 
this primitive art, owing partly, no doubt, to a 
native talent for being quite unashamed, and 
partly to the fact that his alleged adventures were 
sufficiently remote both in time and space to give 
his imagination the proper focal length for seeing 
large. 

Was there anyone present who had never heard 
127 



128 The Splendid Wayfaring 

of that terrible beast called the carcagne?^ 
Well, the old veteran from the Southwest had 
seen one with his own eyes, and could describe it 
in every particular. Not only had he seen one, 
but once when he and a companion were roasting 
a goat away down yonder near the Spanish Peaks, 
a carcagne had come bounding into camp, seized 
the meat from the fire and disappeared — all 
with incredible speed. With every question from 
his audience, the old man's memory seemed to 
grow richer, until the original version of the inci- 
dent was no more than the simple musical theme 
which the winds and strings and brasses chase 
wildly through the intricate mazes of an involved 
orchestration. And what was the carcagne like? 
Well, its hair was long, coarse, and black, and 
had the peculiar property of growing longer, 
coarser, and blacker upon closer scrutiny. As to 
general appearance, this strange beast was a per- 
fect wolf from the tip of its nose to its shoulders, 
and thereafter it was a bear, though it was far 
bigger than any bear the deponent had ever seen. 
Its cry was indescribable, and was such as to strike 
terror into the stoutest heart. 

However, marvelous as the carcagne, upon re- 
peated examination, proved to be, the telling of 
this tale was the merest preliminary exercise for 

^ In his "Rocky Mountain Life," published in 1857, Rufus 
B. Sage seriously discussed this mythical monster that had then 
existed in the imagination of the trappers for a generation. 



The Ghost 129 

the old veteran. His memory became more ath- 
letic, and he recalled the Munchies.^ And what 
were the Munchies? Why, they were a tribe of 
white Indians — whiter than Americans — living 
away down yonder beyond the Gila country. The 
old veteran had met a man who had seen the 
Munchies; in fact, the old veteran had seen them 
with his own eyes. He had not only seen them; 
he had lived in one of their huge cities for some 
months, and he could testify to the fact that they 
were a highly civilized people. 

It happened in this way. Perhaps the young- 
sters present hadn't heard of McKnight, Baird 
and Chambers; but doubtless the older men would 
remember how those gentlemen had set out from 
St. Louis. on a trading expedition to Santa Fe in 
the spring of 18 12. Well, anyway, the speaker 
had been induced by those gentlemen to accom- 
pany the party as hunter, his great skill in that 
line having already rendered him famous, as one 
might say. Upon entering the Mexican country, 
the party, consisting of twelve men, was seized 
by the Spanish authorities and sent to prison in 
Chihuahua, there to remain until death, it would 
appear. But the speaker, being an exceedingly 
clever man, had contrived to escape — in three or 
four distinct ways, as the highly circumstantial 

1 Another myth current in the Early West. See Sage's 
"Rocky Mountain Life," Chapter XXIV. 



130 The Splendid Wayfaring 

narrative seemed to indicate. Once outside the 
prison, the hero of his own story fled to the moun- 
tains to evade his pursuers. 

For weeks he wandered about, lost In the 
wilderness of mountains; and, having no weapon, 
it began to appear that he would surely die of 
starvation. Then, one day, summoning all his 
power in a last desperate effort, he climbed to the 
top of a very high mountain. And what did his 
hearers suppose he saw? 

The old veteran was a master of dramatic 
pauses, which served, doubtless, the double pur- 
pose of intensifying the interest of his audience 
and giving the narrator an opportunity to recall 
any episode that, owing to the well-known care- 
lessness of Chance, might have failed to happen. 

Well, on Its further side, that mountain range 
dropped sheer a thousand feet or more to a fertile 
cup-like valley apparently hemmed In on all sides 
by a giddy precipice. And lo, spread out on the 
valley floor was a vast city with spires and domes 
that shone In the sun! Yonder was food at last 
— but how to reach It? All the rest of that day 
the narrator of the tale sought in vain for a means 
of descent; and next day he continued his search, 
until in mid-afternoon he came to a ragged fissure 
in the cliff, down which, by dint of native clever- 
ness and prodigious strength, he managed to make 
his way. He found the plain to be far vaster In 
extent than he had supposed (and the city itself 



The Ghost 131 

proportionately larger), so that It was not until 
the next morning that he reached his destination, 
though he continued to travel most of the night. 

The Munchies (for it was their city that had 
been seen from the top of the mountain) appeared 
to be unaware that any other human beings ex- 
isted, and they received the starved trapper as a 
god. Processions and feasts were the order of 
the day. Housed in a huge temple, where he was 
daily adored by thousands, the old trapper grew 
fat and dissatisfied. Had he only been treated 
as a human being, he might have been there yet, 
the contented father of a brood of Munchies. 
But being a god soon wearied him, and he began 
to yearn for the old free life. Accordingly, one 
dark night, he made his escape, reaching the fis- 
sure in the cliff just at the white of dawn. He 
climbed all that day, and when, at sunset, he stood 
on the crest of the mountain, he could see the 
whole Munchie population rushing wildly about 
the plain like a colony of agitated ants. 

The narrator had, at the time, intended to re- 
turn; not alone, to be sure, but with a dozen 
hardy fellows properly armed. The Munchies 
were rich beyond calculation, even the poorest 
citizens eating from plates of solid gold. Fur- 
thermore, being vegetarians, because there were 
no wild animals in their valley, and having no 
word for " enemy " in their vocabulary, they were 
without weapons of any sort. 



132 The Splendid Wayfaring 

The business possibilities there were certainly 
very inviting! 

And why hadn't the old veteran gone back? 
Well, he had tried to go back two years later, and 
a score of others with him. For months he and 
his companions had climbed lofty peaks, looking 
for the city of the Munchies, but in vain. 

Who were the Munchies and whence came 
they? That was indeed a puzzling matter; but 
the narrator, having brought a Munchie coin 
away with him, once showed the same to a priest 
who declared that the inscription thereon was in 
the best Latin. Doubtless the Munchies were 
descendants of a small band of Roman adventur- 
ers who, having crossed the Atlantic something 
like 1,500 years before Columbus, had been lost 
in the wilderness ! 

The coin? The old veteran regretted exceed- 
ingly to report that he had lost the coin some 
years back under circumstances involving a clash 
with hostile Indians — which reminded him of 
another story well calculated to discourage any 
further questioning with reference to the myste- 
rious city, lost forever in the wilds of Chihuahua. 

So, mounting to the greater audacity by way of 
the lesser, the old veteran often reached dizzy 
pinnacles of improvisation, entertaining himself 
quite as much as his comrades. But there is in 
this cosmos of ours a story-making agency that at 
times, though working only in the raw stuff of 



The Ghost 133 

facts, outdoes man's boldest fictions. That 
agency is generally known as Chance. The least 
sensitive prevaricator feels it incumbent upon 
himself to give even his wildest yarns some 
semblance of plausibility, which is a matter of 
logical sequences. But Chance, being unhuman, 
is under no compulsion to be plausible, and is ap- 
parently subject only to that weird super-logic of 
events, the course of which is non-predictable by 
any mental process. A story thus created does 
not woo credence step by step; it simply over- 
whelms incredulity with the impossible accom- 
plished, and leaves the critic grasping the broken 
chain of his logic. 

Now a masterpiece of this order had been in 
preparation ever since the westbound party had 
passed the forks of the Grand River during the 
previous August; and so audaciously improbable 
was the tale, that had it been told by the old vet- 
eran of the Southwest, it would probably have 
been received with hilarious laughter, for all the 
sadness of it. 

It happened thus. The blizzards that had 
ushered in the new year, 1824, had ceased at last, 
and a great white calm had fallen on the wilder- 
ness. It was now nearly February. The men 
were beginning to look forward to the renewed 
activity of the spring hunt, and Fitzpatrick's 
plans for pushing westward through the pass, of 
which the Crows had told him, into the mysteri- 



134 ^^^^ Splendid Wayfaring 

ous beaver country whence all streams sought the 
Pacific, furnished an enthralling topic for conver- 
sation. Even the Crows had not penetrated far 
into the region now about to be visited. It 
seemed somewhat like planning a trip to the other 
side of the moon. 

Night had fallen, and the hush of intense cold 
was upon the white waste. A merry fire roared 
on the hearth in the big trading room where the 
men were lounging. Old Baptiste was making 
the Major's fiddle laugh and weep, and often 
when his bow swung into some old Southern jig 
tune, the younger fellows would step it lively, 
aping the Negro dancers away down yonder on 
the plantations that used to be home. By and 
by, in a momentary hush, the stockade gate was 
heard to rattle at its bar as though a sudden 
wind had shaken it; yet there was no wind. The 
men listened awhile, but heard only the howling 
of the wolves and the fort timbers popping in the 
great freeze. 

The music began again, and a youth, swinging 
into an extravagant Negro clog, aroused a roar 
of laughter. Again the music stopped; and 
scarcely had the silence returned, when a wild 
hoarse cry arose outside. Some Crow Indian 
was there at the gate, no doubt; but what could 
he want? A trapper got up, went out into the 
snow that whined under his moccasins, and, fol- 
lowed by the candle-glimmer that spilled through 



The Ghost 135 

the open door, went to the gate and raised the 
wicket through \Yhich trading was sometimes car- 
ried on. Immediately those Inside heard the 
wicket clatter down, and with a look of terror on 
his face the trapper dashed back Into the room 
and slammed the door. 

''I — I — saw — " he stammered. 

" Saw what? " asked the Major. 

^' Old Glass!" whispered the trapper " — all 
white — his ghost ! " 

" Fiddlesticks! " said the Major. Getting up 
from his bench by the fire, he went out Into the 
starlit silence, and the men thronged to the door. 
The dry snow fifed to his stride. The chain 
clanked; the gate swung wide. And then the im- 
possible came to pass! The men saw Henry 
walking backward, and after him came no other 
than Hugh Glass who had died yonder at the 
forks of the Grand and was burled there! His 
hair that swept his shoulders and his long gray 
beard matted upon his chest were ghostly with 
his frozen breath. The men gave way at the 
door, and Henry backed In, followed by the 
spectre. And what a face It had — grotesquely 
blurred as though seen reflected in ruffled water! 

The old man stalked boldly into the middle of 
the room with his long rifie under his arm and 
stared about him. 

"My God!" gasped the Major; "two men 
saw you die at the forks of the Grand ! " 



136 The Splendid Wayfaring 

The old man's chest rumbled with unpleasant 
laughter. 

" Show me these men who have seen so much," 
he said. " Either they He here or I lie there ! 
I'm not half sure myself." 

" Yonder is one," said Henry. 

Hugh turned to where a trapper crouched 
against the wall with abject terror in his eyes. For 
a brief moment the ruined face of the old man 
was as though a blizzard swept across it. He set 
the trigger of his gun and clicked the lock. Then 
his face softened, and, easing the hammer down, 
he strode over to the grovelling man and kicked 
him lightly. 

"Get up and wag your tail," said he; "I 
wouldn't kill a pup. Where's the other one who 
saw me die? " 

The other one had gone to Fort Atkinson with 
despatches before the snows had come; and the 
other one proved to be a youth whom Hugh had 
loved and befriended. 

" Well, well," remarked the man who had 
just returned from the grave; "it's a long way 
I've travelled if yonder gentleman has spoken 
truth. So put on the pot and you will see what 
an appetite a ghost can have ! " And having 
eaten with a wolfish hunger, the old man told the 
story of his resurrection. 

He could not say how long he had lain there 
by the spring; but by and by he awoke and man- 



The Ghost 137 

aged to get his eyes open. It was some time be- 
fore he could realize what had happened to him. 
Then he knew by the footprints of horses all 
about him that the main party had been there and 
gone on. The ash-heap of an old fire, however, 
showed that Major Henry had not intended to 
desert him. Some of his comrades had been left 
behind to care for him; but where were they? 
And where were his "fixins"? Not even so 
much as a knife had been left him. 

The more he thought about the matter the 
greater grew his anger, and he swore that he 
would live that he might avenge that treachery. 
Deliberately he set about the difficult business of 
getting well enough to travel. The spring fur- 
nished plenty of good water, and over it hung a 
bush full of ripe bullberries. Also, with his teeth 
he was able to tear flesh from the gashed body of 
the bear; but the meat had begun to spoil, and 
soon he had only the fruit and what bread-root he 
could find in the vicinity. 

After some days of waiting he decided that his 
leg, which seemed to have been broken, was hardly 
likely to carry him for some weeks; so he thought 
it well to begin his journey at once by crawling. 
Fort Kiowa, the nearest post on the Missouri, 
was over a hundred miles away. After weeks of 
well nigh incredible hardships, sorely wounded and 
without weapons, he had succeeded in reaching 
the post. Shortly afterward, still intent upon 



138 The Splendid Wayfaring 

revenge, he had joined a keelboat party bound 
for the mouth of the Yellowstone ; but at the Man- 
dan villages the ice had closed in. Still driven 
by his wrath, he had pushed on alone through the 
winter wilderness; and here he was at the mouth 
of the Big Horn! 

The wrath that had given him strength to sur- 
vive was now concentrated upon the friend who 
had robbed and deserted him; and within a few 
weeks he set out again, riding southward by way 
of the Powder to the Platte, eastward to the 
Niobrara, down that stream to its mouth, and 
thence by the valley of the Missouri to Fort x'\t- 
klnson. But the treacherous friend had gone up 
stream, and Hugh followed. 

If, when the long pursuit was ended, Hugh had 
wrought vengeance upon his youthful betrayer, 
his adventure would have been little more than an 
astonishing exhibition of brute endurance and 
ferocity; but in the end the Graybeard forgave, 
and that fact raises his story to the level of sub- 
limity.^ 

1 A detailed account of the adventure will be found in my 
narrative poem, "The Song of Hugh Glass," Macmillan, 1915; 
annotated school edition, 1919. 



XI 

THE FIRST WHITE MEN THROUGH SOUTH PASS 

LATE in February of 1824 the monotonous 
days of the winter-bound party at the mouth 
of the Big Horn came to an end at last. A small 
band of trappers, including Hugh Glass, still ob- 
sessed with the desire for revenge, started with 
despatches for Fort Atkinson, and those who re- 
mained soon after began the spring hunt, trapping 
on the tributaries of the Yellowstone in the vi- 
cinity of the fort. 

Meanwhile, waiting for the first authentic signs 
of spring, Thomas Fitzpatrick and Jedediah Smith 
were making ready for the much discussed journey 
across the Great Divide into the mysterious 
beaver country of which the Crows had given so 
glowing an account during the previous fall. It 
was agreed with the Major that they should un- 
dertake this expedition as " free trappers," the 
necessary outfit to be furnished on credit by the 
firm of Ashley and Henry, and to be paid for out 
of the proceeds of the enterprise — a fact which 
made the young adventurers all the more eager to 
put their fortune to the test. 

The snow was softening in a southwind, and up 
139 



140 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the lower reaches of the sunward slopes a pale 
green glow was filtering through the yellow buf- 
falo grass the day they rode away from the fort 
and disappeared up the valley of the Big Horn. 
It must have been good to see them riding forth 
that day — a score of hardy young men, wearing 
the savage garb of the wilderness, well mounted, 
and driving with them a string of laden pack- 
horses. 

Day after day they pushed on steadily up the 
valley, making but moderate progress; for the 
winter had been a hard one and forage for the 
horses had been scanty in the vicinity of the fort. 
Nor did they seem to be riding toward the spring, 
though they were headed that way; for the land 
was rising rapidly and the increasing altitude off- 
set their southward progress, so that the ponies, 
nosing for the first green shoots, still tasted snow. 
To their left and ahead arose the dazzling sum- 
mits of the Big Horn Mountains, and to their 
right the Continental Divide was like an irregular 
bank of glittering cloud floating up with an im- 
perceptible westwind. 

They came at length to the base of the moun- 
tains where the Big Horn River issues from a 
canyon, and began the crossing of the range by a 
route that came to be known among the trappers 
as " Bad Pass," and that was described by Irv- 
ing (who got his information from Captain Bon- 
neville) as " rugged and frightful." At this early 



First White Men Through South Pass 141 

season the passage must have been especially dif- 
ficult, and doubtless two or three days were spent 
in crossing, though the length of the canyon by 
which the river breaks through is only thirty miles. 

Upon emerging from the mountains they found 
themselves in the pleasant valley of the Wind 
River which, rising in the Wind River Mountains, 
flows southeastward then northward, and after 
breaking through the range that had just been 
crossed becomes the Big Horn. Here on the 9th 
of September, thirteen years before, had arrived 
the Astorians under W. P. Hunt, travelling over- 
land from the Ree villages on the Missouri to the 
mouth of the Columbia. From this point Hunt's 
trail had led up the Wind River through a difficult 
pass near Jackson's Hole. But according to the 
information that Fitzpatrick had received from 
the Crows, he should here strike southward to the 
Sweetwater which, if followed to its source, would 
lead to the easy open gateway of a country rich 
in beaver. 

During the ascent of the Big Horn and the 
crossing of the mountains it had become evident 
that at least half of the horses were too poor to 
be relied upon for any difficult going that might 
be encountered farther on; and it was decided that 
a half dozen men under Smith, who no doubt still 
felt the effects of his wounds, should remain for a 
time on the Wind River with the weaker horses, 
later crossing with them to the Sweetwater, there 



142 The Splendid Wayfaring 

to await the exploring party's return from the 
West during the summer. 

Accordingly, near the mouth of the Popo Agle, 
a tributary of the Wind River, Smith went Into 
camp, and FItzpatrIck with fourteen men and 
about twenty-five of the stronger horses pushed on 
southward up the valley of the little tributary. 
Very soon after leaving Smith, the wisdom of the 
late decision became apparent to FItzpatrIck, for 
he found himself In a " confusion of hills and cliffs 
of red sandstone, some peaked and angular, some 
round, some broken Into crags and precipices, and 
piled up In fantastic masses; but all naked and 
sterile." ^ Emerging from this grotesque world 
and travelling as rapidly as possible through a 
broken sagebrush country where the banks of the 
creeks were often crusted white with saline de- 
posits, they came at last, with horses half starved 
and fagged, to a clear pure stream flowing swiftly 
eastward over a rocky bed through a fine valley 
dotted here and there with clumps of cottonwood, 
scrub oak, and aspen. It was the Sweetwater, the 
origin of whose name would seem to be obvious, 
considering the purity of the stream as contrasted 
with the saline character of the creeks In the sur- 
rounding region. 2 Wherever the snow, swept 

1 Irving, Captain Bonneville. 

2 The original French name was Eau Sucree (sugared v^'ater), 
and W, A. Ferris, an early traveller over the Oregon Trail, 
tells us that the name was given because a pack-mule, laden 
with sugar, had been lost in the river sometime before 1830. 



First White Men Through South Pass 143 

thin by the winds, had begun to melt In the noon 
suns, a rich growth of buffalo grass, well cured 
during the winter, furnished excellent pasturage: 
and the party spent several days In camp here, that 
the animals might recruit their strength for the 
journey across the Great Divide. 

To westward the Wind River Mountains ran 
like a broken white wall along the horizon, and 
the men, remembering their recent experiences in 
the Big Horn range, talked much of the difficulties 
that might be encountered yonder at this time of 
the year, for the snow would still be lying deep in 
the lofty passes. Would it not be better to wait 
until the spring thaw had cleared the way? But 
Fitzpatrick, eager to enter the promised land of 
which the Crows had spoken, and trusting in what 
the Chief had told him as to the ease with which 
the mountains could be crossed, chose to push on 
without further delay. Setting out up the valley 
of the Sweetwater, they travelled all day over a 
natural road, no portion of which would have of- 
fered any serious obstacle to loaded wagons. 
Sometimes the valley spread to a width of three 
or four miles, sometimes It narrowed to a few 
rods, but always the way was fairly easy; and the 
rise of the land toward the Divide was scarcely 
perceptible, save that the air grew steadily colder 
and the snow deepened as the party proceeded. 
That night the sky was like frosty steel and the 
stars like broken glass. 



144 ^^'^ Splendid Wayfaring 

Breaking camp In the white of the dawn, they 
pushed on again; and more and more, as they 
went, their horses floundered In the crusted snow. 
The Sweetwater dwindled to a Httle creek voice- 
less in the grip of the winter that lingered there, 
and the noon was like a mid-winter noon. They 
tolled on over a high rolling prairie, the ponies 
frosty-muzzled and frosty-flanked, the men's 
beards whitened with their breath. By and by 
the Sweetwater had disappeared. For some time 
the band tolled on silently, save for the blowing 
of the horses and the crunching of the crusted 
snow. Then someone cried: "Look! Look!" 

Long vistas of a vast undulating plain had 
opened out ahead, and here and there in the dis- 
tance lofty buttes (some flat-topped like Islands 
deserted by the sea, some carved by wind and rain 
into towers and domes) seemed staring round 
them at the Immense scope and loneliness of the 
surrounding world. It was the promised land of 
the SIskadee Agie, and already they were on the 
westward slope of the Divide. The shout that 
arose from the band died without echo in that vast- 
ness, and the sympathetic neighing of the horses 
was a feeble sound. 

Now as they floundered on they noted that the 
air grew somewhat warmer, despite the waning of 
the afternoon. Signs of noonday melting began 
to appear. Shortly before sundown they came 
upon a living spring, where they went into camp 



First White Men Through South Pass 145 

and spent a cheerless night, for there was no wood 
in the vicinity; but the windswept spaces about the 
spring furnished some scanty grazing for the 
horses, which was the matter of chief importance. 

All the next forenoon, as they pushed on in a 
southwesterly direction, signs of spring became in- 
creasingly evident. Yesterday morning it was 
January; today it was late March. The grass 
had begun to sprout and the willow buds were 
swelling slightly when they came, in the late after- 
noon, to a creek the bed of which was some fifteen 
or twenty feet wide. They were now on the Lit- 
tle Sandy, the waters of which reach the Gulf of 
California by way of the Colorado; and they had 
just come through South Pass — the first white 
men of all the thousands upon thousands that 
would pass that way when the Oregon and Cali- 
fornia Trail should become like a great river of 
home-seeking humanity.^ 

That night by a cheerful fire, Fitzpatrick in- 
dulged in what must have seemed extravagant 
prophecy to many of his companions, telling how 
ox-drawn wagons would one day be seen trundling 
up the valleys of the Platte and the Sweetwater 
to this place, thence to the headwaters of the Co- 

1 See article entitled " Major Fitzpatrick, Discoverer of South 
Pass," by Solitaire (John S. Robb) in St. Louis IVeekly Reveille, 
March i, 1847; article entitled "The Plains" by Frangois des 
Montagnes in Western Journal, St. Louis, 1852, Vol. IX; H. C. 
Dale's article, " Did the Returning Astorians Discover South 
Pass?" in Oregon Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. XVII; H. C. 
Dale, " Ashley-Smith Explorations," page 93 et seq. 



146 The Splendid Wayfaring 

lumbla and down that river to the sea. " Little 
did he dream then," says an old chronicler, " that 
he himself, twenty years after, would encamp in 
that passage with the first train of American emi- 
grants destined to the new land beyond, and who 
were not only carrying along their wagons, but all 
the household necessaries for furnishing their new 
homes." ^ 

^St. Louis Reveille, March i, 1847. 



XII 

TREASURE AND TROUBLE THEREWITH 

MOVING on down the creek to its junction 
with the Big Sandy,^ and following the lat- 
ter to its mouth through an arid country, Fitzpat- 
rick's party and the full tide of spring reached the 
Green River together. The long-leafed cotton- 
woods and the box elders that grew along the river 
banks and on occasional islands were leafing out, 
and late April was moving like a pale green vapor 
through the willow thickets. Food for man and 
beast was plentiful here. But the beaver! 
Everywhere felled cottonwoods, dams, and dome- 
shaped lodges proclaimed the wealth of the coun- 
try; and the men set to work in high glee, for none 
among them had ever before seen a country so 
rich in fur. Certainly the Crow chief had not 
been over-eloquent in his description of this para- 
dise of the trapper! 

Joseph Meek, a famous mountain man, has left 
us the following account of the manner in which 
the trapper took his game : ^ " He has an or- 

^This stream was named by Ashley in April, 1825. See 
Chap. XIV. 
2 Victor. " River of the West." 
147 



148 The Splendid Wayfaring 

dinary steel trap weighing five pounds, attached to 
a chain five feet long, with a swivel and ring at 
the end, which plays round what is called the float, 
a dry stick of wood about six feet long. The 
trapper wades out into the stream, which is shal- 
low, and cuts with his knife a bed for his trap, five 
or six inches under water. He then takes the 
float out the whole length of the chain in the direc- 
tion of the center of the stream, and drives it in, 
so fast that the beaver can not draw it out; at the 
same time tying the other end by a thong to the 
bank. A small stick or twig, dipped in musk or 
castor (found in certain glands of the beaver) 
served for bait, and is placed so as to hang directly 
above the trap, which is now set. The trapper 
then throws water plentifully over the adjacent 
bank to conceal any footprints or scent by which 
the beaver would be alarmed, and, going to some 
distance, wades out of the stream. In setting a 
trap, certain things are to be observed with care; 
first, that the trap is firmly fixed, and at the proper 
distance from the bank — for if the beaver can 
get on shore with the trap, he will cut off his foot 
to escape; second, that the float is of dry wood, 
for should it not be, the animal will cut it off at a 
stroke, and swimming with the trap to the middle 
of the dam, be drowned by its weight. In the lat- 
ter case, when the hunter visits his trap in the 
morning, he is under the necessity of plunging into 
the water and swimming out, to dive for his game. 



Treasure and Trouble Therewith 149 

Should the morning be frosty and chilly, as it very 
frequently is in the mountains, diving for traps is 
not a pleasant exercise. In placing the bait, care 
must be taken to fix it just where the beaver, in 
reaching it, will spring the trap. If the bait stick 
be placed high, the hind foot of the beaver will 
be caught; if low, the forefoot." 

In this manner Fitzpatrick's men were now em- 
ployed In the reaping of the rich harvest, though 
often the beaver were so plentiful that they were 
shot from the cover of the willows. While the 
greater portion of the band was engaged In hunt- 
ing, several of the men were left in camp to skin 
the catch, dry the hides and form them into packs, 
each weighing about one hundred pounds and con- 
taining about sixty pelts. 

Within a week after arriving in the Green River 
country, the party had taken enough fur to make 
four packs. Still, as they proceeded slowly down 
the stream, working the tributaries, the supply 
seemed Inexhaustible — and beaver selling in St. 
Louis at about six dollars per pound ! One needs 
but little imagination to realize with what high 
spirits those young men pushed the work ! 

i\nother week passed. Still the pelts accu- 
mulated amazingly, and every night brought feast- 
ing and jollity. Within a month, at most, the 
band would be starting for the Pass to join Smith's 
party at the rendezvous on the Sweetwater. And 
what a tale there would be to tell ! All the while 



150 The Splendid Wayfaring 



the busy trappers had come upon no Indian 
" sign." They seemed to be the only human be- 
ings in all that vast country, though they knew 
from the Crows that the tribe of Snakes claimed 
the land westward from the Pass. For some 
days after their arrival at the hunting grounds the 
party had rigidly followed Henry's plan for mak- 
ing camp in a hostile territory; but soon the ap- 
parent loneliness of the region, together with the 
expansive mood of success, induced laxness. Of 
late, the practice of bringing the horses within the 
enclosure of the camp at sunset had been discon- 
tinued, and four horse-guards were deemed suffi- 
cient to watch the herd grazing out the night in 
the lush bottoms near the sleeping trappers. 

Now an ancient Greek would say that these 
men had fallen into the great sin of hubris, being 
drunk with good fortune and no longer mindful 
of that humility which is befitting to the state of 
mere mortals. However that may be, there came 
a night when their surprising run of luck was 
rudely broken, as will now appear. 

They had camped in a bend of the river where 
the valley broadened out, rising westward by an 
easy grade to a great arid plain. The fires that 
had burned merrily in the evening while the men 
took their ease, smoking and yarning luxuriously, 
had fallen low; and those on watch heard the snor- 
ing of the sleepers, the night wind rustling the 
cottonwoods and mumbling In the willows, the con- 



Treasure and Trouble Therewith 151 

tented horses blowing and stamping as they nosed 
the fat pasture. The stars swarmed up out of the 
dark hollow of the world and drifted over the 
mysterious Immensity, showering the stuff of slum- 
ber. A stricken flint spurted out yonder, and the 
momentary glow of a horse-guard's pipe painted 
a weathered face upon the gloom. A cotton-like 
fog crawled over the river, and the night air was 
tanged with a hint of frost. Hours passed, and 
the wheeling heavens had yet three hours to bring 
the dawn, when the night was suddenly filled with 
yelling and the sound of many galloping hoofs. 

Thus rudely shaken out of deep sleep, the trap- 
pers leaped to their feet, dashing about the camp 
in bewilderment and shouting unanswered ques- 
tions. Some of the less excitable men seized their 
rifles and fired into the whirlwind of shadowy 
horsemen that swept by, waving hide robes about 
their heads and howling as they circled about the 
panic-stricken herd and sent it stampeding up the 
westward slope. 

It was all over before the white men fully real- 
ized what was happening. The flying shadows 
disappeared over the rise, and, dumfounded, the 
trappers stood there listening to the lessening roll 
of their horses' hoofs out yonder on the plain. 

Here was a pretty fix, indeed! Had the horse- 
guards fallen asleep? That mattered little now. 
What mattered was the fact that the Snakes had 
robbed them of their horses, and what good was 



152 The Splendid Wayfaring 

all this wealth without means of transporting it 
over the Divide? They slept no more that night 
but, replenishing the fallen fires, sat down to dis- 
cuss their predicament with many a lusty oath. 
No one had been hurt — a fact which left some 
room for optimism. Many of the wilder spirits 
were in favor of starting at once In pursuit of the 
animals; but FItzpatrick saw the matter in a dif- 
ferent light. Here was plenty of beaver; and 
since they had come for beaver, why not continue 
the hunt while the fur was good ^ and until they 
had all they wanted of the precious stuff? At 
worst, they could cache their packs, return on foot 
to the Sweetwater and get more horses from the 
Crows. 

When morning came, the rich yield of the traps 
served to popularize Fitzpatrick's plan, and all 
agreed that there would be time enough to think 
about horses when the matter of beaver pelts had 
been satisfactorily handled. Further, Immunity 
from attack by the natives of the country was 
fairly certain henceforth, since the Snakes had al- 
ready taken what they wanted and would hardly 
be likely to return out of sheer wantonness. 

So, not only with enthusiasm unabated, but with 
a heightened sense of adventure, the men went on 
with the trapping. The Snakes, however, re- 
mained the common topic of discussion about the 

1 Fur taken in the early spring is of finer grade than that 
taken in the summer. 



Treasure and Trouble Therewith 153 

evening fires; and more and more, as the time drew 
near when the need of horses should become press- 
ing, the trappers talked of reprisal. Not only 
was it a long way back to the Sweetwater, but the 
horses that Smith had there would scarcely be 
sufficient for the need. As for the Crows, there 
was no telling where they might be with their 
herds during the summer — away over yonder 
at the Powder's mouth as like as not ! Why cross 
the Divide? Hadn't the Snakes at least twenty 
five good horses? Also, weren't fourteen well- 
armed white men as good as a whole village of 
yonder rascals? Also, wouldn't it be good policy 
to acquaint the Snakes with the temper of the 
trapping breed, that future operations in the coun- 
try might be attended with less annoyance? 

The audacious proposal steadily gained ground 
among the men, until it dominated the camp. 
For, as a matter of fact, the rank and file of the 
band were far less concerned with beaver than 
with adventure; and here was a glorious oppor- 
tunity for laying up some memories against the 
time when old age should make action impossible. 
So when twenty packs of beaver were made up, 
it happened that the band made ready for an ex- 
pedition against the Snake tribe. This involved 
the making of a cache for the furs and equipment, 
which was done in the following manner: 

Choosing a dry place in the midst of a thicket, 
they dug a pit six feet in diameter and eight feet 



154 ^^^ Splendid Wayfaring 

deep. From this a drift was run back sufficiently 
large to accommodate all the impedimenta of the 
party. The excavation was then carefully lined 
with sticks and dry grass, after which the goods 
were carefully packed within, the opening to the 
drift covered with a layer of willows and grass, 
and the hole filled. In order that the cache might 
not be discovered and " lifted " by some wander- 
ing band of Indians, every particle of soil that re- 
mained was gathered up and dumped into the 
river, and great care was given to the replacing 
of the grass just as it had been before the digging. 
Certain bluffs, observed In relation to the spot, 
served as markers, and the number of days of 
travel from thence to the mouth of the Big Sandy 
would determine the general locality of the cache. 
Having thus disposed of their baggage, and 
carrying nothing but their rifles, ammunition, and 
the smaller necessary articles of a trapper's equip- 
ment known as " possibles," the band started out 
on the trail of the Snakes which led in a northerly 
direction over the arid plain. There had been no 
rain since the night attack, and the hoofs of fifty 
horses (there could have been no less, counting 
those of the Indians) had left no doubtful record 
of their passing. After five long days of march- 
ing the band reached the mouth of the Sandy, and 
still the trail led on, skirting the Green River. It 
was noted that at this point the Indians had be- 
gun to travel in a leisurely manner, for the trap- 



Treasure and Trouble Therewith 155 

pers, though afoot, easily covered in a day the 
distance from one camping ground to another; and 
It became the common opinion that the Snake vil- 
lage could not be far away. Accordingly from 
this point onward the party spent the day camp- 
ing in some concealed place, and moved by night, 
for the moon was full now and the trail was still 
easy to follow. 

Three nights they pushed on up the Green after 
leaving the Big Sandy's mouth, marching from 
dusk to dawn. Then, during the fourth night 
when the moon in mid-heaven was flooding the 
huge spaces with that purple glow that one sees 
only in high dry countries and in the staging of a 
melodrama, the scouts, travelling a half hour in 
advance of the party, brought back a bit of news 
that set all hearts pounding. Scarcely more than 
a mile ahead they had looked down from a bluff 
upon an Indian encampment. They had counted 
twenty lodges there in an open space near the 
river, and they judged that no less than one hun- 
dred horses were grazing along the bottom. On 
the far side of the herd the brush seemed to be 
quite dense. By passing the village and approach- 
ing the grazing horses through the brush, the 
scouts judged that it would be possible for each 
man to capture and mount an animal without 
arousing the Indians. Then the whole herd could 
be stampeded right through the village and up an 
adjoining slope into the open country. 



156 The Splendid Wayfaring 

After holding a council of war, the trappers 
pushed on cautiously up stream, the scouts leading 
the way. Soon they caught the faint smell of 
smouldering fires, and, making a wide detour, they 
passed the encampment, descended into the brushy 
valley beyond, and crawled southward until they 
came to the edge of the thicket. There, within a 
stone's throw, was the Snake herd peacefully graz- 
ing; and, fortunately, owing to the lie of the land, 
the animals were well bunched. Farther on at a 
distance of two or three hundred yards was the 
dusky clutter of skin lodges, vaguely illumined 
here and there by glowing embers; and beyond 
that, where the valley turned abruptly eastward, 
bare bluffs sloped gradually to the plain above. 

Evidently It had not occurred to the Indians 
that the white men might come afoot after their 
horses; and doubtless they knew that their ancient 
enemies, the Blackfeet, were hunting far away on 
the Missouri. The full moon clearly revealed the 
peaceful scene; and as the men lay there consider- 
ing the situation, they gloated in whispers over the 
line prospect for a clean sweep of the herd. Even 
the dogs had not yet sensed danger; and if any of 
the Indians were awake there was nothing to indi- 
cate the fact. 

Now swinging their loaded rifles at their backs 
by means of thongs that had been prepared for 
this particular moment, the trappers crept on all 
fours out into the open and approached the herd. 



Treasure and Trouble Therewith 157 

Several of the nearer horses, with heads held high, 
ears pricked forward and tails raised, snorted 
alarm; and forthwith the herd crowded together 
and began to mill. A dog barked in the village. 
Now was the time ! Leaping to their feet, the 
trappers rushed to the nearest bunch of jostling, 
snorting animals; and it was a tense moment dur- 
ing which each man, seizing the mane of a horse, 
scrambled to Its back, knowing well what fate he 
might expect if he failed. 

Then arose a yell that sent the herd thundering 
toward the encampment; and after It came the 
mounted trappers, howling defiance at the rudely 
awakened foe. Right on through the village 
rushed the frightened horses, making havoc 
among the lodges as they went; and after them 
rode FItzpatrick's men, discharging their rifles as 
they dashed through the population of the town 
now swarming into the open — shrieking squaws, 
crying children, shouting braves, barking dogs ! 
On up the slope beyond, the stampede thundered; 
and but a few minutes elapsed between the time 
of mounting and the moment when, topping the 
ridge amid a tempest of flying manes, the victors 
saw before them the dusky plain weird under the 
moon. It was an hour before the horses, fagged 
with the long run, fell Into a jog trot and became 
manageable. 

Morning came, and still FItzpatrick's men 
pushed on southward with the herd. Nor did 



158 The Splendid Wayfaring 

they venture to camp until the evening shadows 
began to deepen along the river valley. Many of 
the horses had strayed from the herd during the 
wild night run, and some of those would doubtless 
be picked up by the Snakes before long. There- 
fore haste was still necessary; and at midnight the 
trappers set out again into the south. By riding 
the greater part of both night and day, they ar- 
rived safely at the cache during the third evening 
from the Indian village. 

They now had forty horses in place of the 
twenty five so unceremoniously borrowed by the 
Snakes — a goodly increase on the original invest- 
ment! 



XIII 

THE RETURN 

DURING the night after they arrived at their 
old camp on the Green River, Fitzpatrick's 
men uncovered the cache and made ready for an 
early start next day, while the horses, carefully 
guarded, grazed along the bottom; and when the 
sun arose the band was already winding up-stream 
— fourteen mounted men and twenty-six pack- 
horses laden with the baggage and the costly bales 
of beaver. To follow the Green to the mouth of 
the Sandy would have been to risk a clash with a 
party of Snakes; and so, coming at noon to the 
mouth of a creek that entered from the east, they 
turned off there and followed the course of the lit- 
tle tributary until dusk. 

They had now advanced a half day's march Into 
an inhospitable country. Two days of travel to 
the northward were the headwaters of the Sandy; 
and when, next morning, they left the creek and 
ascended the low rise that bordered it, they cursed 
the Snakes most heartily; for they should have 
been following a rich valley, and now they saw 
ahead of them a desert country rolling drearily 
away to the sky-rim. Nevertheless, the prospect 

159 



i6o The Splendid Wayfaring 

offered some compensation; for though it seemed 
likely that there would be no game or grass or 
water yonder, neither would there be any human 
foe. 

All forenoon the ponies travelled northward at 
a swinging walk across a baked plain of whitish 
clay mixed with gravel, where even sagebrush was 
scarce. Then the soil became sandy, and soon the 
party was floundering through a wilderness of 
dunes where not even sagebrush grew. With 
drooping heads the sweating animals labored on 
through the thirsty land. Away to the northeast 
the snow-clad mountains, tauntingly near to the 
eyes but discouragingly distant for the feet, ght- 
tered in the white glare of the day. The sun 
burned red over the rim of the melancholy waste, 
and disappeared, and the air turned chill. Night 
without wood or water or grass ! 

Having paused for an hour to rest the weary 
animals, the band forged ahead with their faces to 
the North Star; and sullenly half the night they la- 
bored on through an empty world where the soft 
padding of the hoofs and the wheezing breath of 
the horses seemed very loud, so oppressive was the 
stillness of that dead land. Then when the Dip- 
per was upside down above the Pole, the band 
halted and the packs were taken off. Until day- 
break the ponies nosed and pawed the sand, nicker- 
ing pitifully for grass and water. 



The Return i6i 

In the white of the morning they were moving 
again at a slow, stumbling pace. By sunrise they 
had entered a rolling prairie country where once 
more the sagebrush grew; and when the day was 
half way up the sky, topping a hogback, the lead- 
ing pony lifted his head and neighed; whereat the 
whole cavalcade, with ears pricked forward, fell 
to nickering joyfully, and the men shouted with 
them. Yonder but a mile or two away was a 
winding strip of green ! 

Soon forty horses, freed from their loads, were 
thrusting parched muzzles into the waters of the 
upper Sandy and rolling luxuriously in the green 
grass. 

Thenceforth the trail was easy, and the party 
made good time up the Little Sandy, through the 
recently discovered pass and down the Sweetwater 
to the place of rendezvous. There Smith and his 
men were waiting, together with a band under the 
command of William L. Sublette, who had re- 
cently come down from the Big Horn, intending to 
cross the mountains if Fitzpatrick's experience in 
the new country should prove satisfactory. 

Sublette brought the news that Major Henry 
had recently started down the Yellowstone for St. 
Louis with a boatload of furs collected at the 
mouth of the Big Horn during the previous fall 
and spring, and that he intended to return before 
■winter with a pack-train of supplies for the men 



1 62 The Splendid Wayfaring 

who would probably then be operating beyond the 
Great Divide. 

Fired by the astounding stories they heard from 
their comrades who had just returned from the 
fur country of the Siskadee, Smith and Sublette de- 
cided to move westward as soon as possible, while 
Fitzpatrick should proceed eastward with the 
beaver packs. 

Fitzpatrick now conceived a plan of character- 
istic daring. Why use horses for the trip? 
Many pack animals would be needed over yonder 
by his comrades, and to travel with a pack-train 
was at best a wearisome business. Why not make 
bullboats and drift down the Sweetwater and the 
Platte to the Missouri? The June flood was now 
on, and it seemed that such a journey should prove 
to be both swift and easy. The fact that no white 
man had yet navigated the turbulent upper portion 
of this long watercourse acted as a powerful argu- 
ment in favor of the attempt. 

Large numbers of bison were grazing In the 
vicinity of the rendezvous, and the three combined 
parties now organized a hunt; for those who were 
going west knew not what gameless country they 
might traverse in their wanderings yonder beyond 
the Divide; and it seemed best that here where 
game was abundant they should lay up a supply of 
dried meat against possible famine. Then, while 
their comrades were engaged In jerking large 
quantities of bison flesh, Fitzpatrlck's men 



The Return 163 

wrought their bullboats. John B. Wyeth,^ who 
visited this region eight years later, has left us the 
following description of the making of a bullboat: 
" They first cut a number of willows about an inch 
and a half in diameter at the butt end, and fixed 
them In the ground at proper distances from each 
other, and as they approached each end they 
brought these nearer together so as to form some- 
thing like the bow. The ends of the whole were 
bent over and bound firmly together like the ribs 
of a great basket; and then they took other twigs 
of willow and wove them into those stuck In the 
ground so as to make a sort of firm, huge basket 
twelve or fourteen feet long. After this was com- 
pleted, they sewed together a number of buffalo 
skins, and with them covered the whole; and after 
the different parts had been trimmed off smooth, 
a slow fire was made under the bullboat, taking 
care to dry the skins moderately; and as they grad- 
ually dried and acquired a due degree of warmth, 
they rubbed buffalo tallow all over the outside of 
it, so as to allow It to enter into all the seams of 
the boat, now no longer a willow basket. As the 
melted tallow ran down into every seam, hole and 
crevice, it cooled Into a firm body capable of resist- 
ing the water, and bearing a considerable blow 
without damaging It. Then the willow-ribbed, 
buffalo-skin, tallowed vehicle was carefully pulled 

^ Oregon ; or a ** Short History of a Long Journey from the 
Atlantic Ocean to the Region of the Pacific." 



164 The Splendid Wayfaring 

up from the ground, and behold a boat! " The 
willow ends, protruding from the rim, were then 
cut off and the gunwales made firm with a binding 
of rawhide. 

Such craft, used by the Indians of the Plains be- 
fore the coming of the white men, were of great 
service to the trappers in navigating the shoal 
rivers of the West; for a bullboat ten feet wide 
by twenty five feet long would carry over two tons 
with a draught of no more than four inches. 

At length, when sufficient meat had been dried 
and two boats were launched and loaded with the 
Green River furs, Fitzpatrick's men, bidding fare- 
well to their comrades who, under Smith and Sub- 
lette, were starting for the country beyond the 
Pass, pushed off into the swift current of the 
Sweetwater. All forenoon they sped along the 
winding stream, now in the midst of broad mead- 
ows dotted with occasional sandstone piles, carved 
by the wind and rain of ages Into curious shapes; 
now plunging with the arrowy current through 
overhanging canyon walls fearsome with shadow 
and the sinister voices of the waters; now out 
again into the broad sunlight of a pleasant valley 
where bison grazed like tame cattle and bands of 
elk raised their heads to stare at the strange 
shapes that swept along the stream. Noon 
burned down upon the boatmen, and still they 
raced onward with the June rise, expressing their 
huge satisfaction now and then with snatches of 



The Return 165 

song. Compared with the plodding pace of sad- 
dle-weary horses, this was like an indolent travel- 
ler's dream, in which hills and valleys, becoming 
mere pictures, obligingly moved themselves to the 
rear, filing past in a hushed and stately procession. 

The sun was nearing the western rim and the 
men, congratulating themselves upon a good day's 
run, were thinking of camp, when they heard a 
low sullen roar ahead of them. Now if the day 
had passed in a dream of travel, yonder sound, 
steadily increasing In volume as they swept on- 
ward, was the voice of approaching reality, as 
they were very soon to realize. A few minutes 
later they shot out Into the swirl where the Sweet- 
water enters the North Fork of the Platte. Then 
It happened! 

Pressed Into a rocky channel between an Island 
and the shore, the combined floods rolled as In a 
great wind, though the air was still. Suddenly 
the leading boat reared upon a rock like a frac- 
tious horse taking a fence, caught the thrust of the 
current on its depressed gunwale, and capsized. 
In another moment the second boat had done like- 
wise, and the turbulent channel was littered with 
swimming men and floating baggage.^ 

Within a few minutes all the trappers, sputter- 
ing and puffing, had reached the shore. But what 

^ In 1842 Fitzpatrick, then a member of Fremont's exploring 
party, was wrecked at the same place. See Fremont's " Report 
of the Exploring Expedition to the Rocky Mountains," Wash- 
ington, 1845. 



1 66 The Splendid Wayfaring 

of the precious cargo and equipment? Some of It 
had gone down never to be recovered; some had 
drifted Into shallower water below and stranded 
on the rocks. Surely this was a rude ending for a 
merry day; and right vigorously the drenched and 
crestfallen trappers cursed their luck. 

Having built several rousing fires on the bank 
(for each had a flint and steel among his " pos- 
sibles ") the men stripped, hung their buckskins up 
to dry, and plunged Into the swirl of cold moun- 
tain water after their baggage. With great effort 
they managed to recover the boats, some of the 
equipment, and a sufficient portion of the fur to 
discharge the debt to Ashley and Henry for the 
outfit furnished at the mouth of the Big Horn 
during the early spring. 

FItzpatrIck now decided not to risk the loss of 
the remaining furs by taking them down stream; 
for being at that time still unfamiliar with the 
North Platte, he suspected that other accidents, 
such as had just occurred, might be expected be- 
fore he should reach the broad, quiet waters of 
the lower river. It seemed best to hasten on with 
a few men to Fort Atkinson, Inform Ashley at St. 
Louis as to the newly discovered hunting grounds 
beyond the Divide, procure horses and return for 
the furs. So, having cached the remaining beaver 
packs near the scene of the catastrophe, FItzpat- 
rIck set out next morning with five men and one 
boat, leaving the balance of the party in camp at 
the mouth of the Sweetwater. 



The Return 167 

No further trouble occurred, and the light craft 
made good time with the high water. By travel- 
ling from daylight to dusk, in two weeks the little 
band reached Fort Atkinson on the Missouri. 
They were thus the first white men to navigate the 
Platte from its headwaters on the Continental Di- 
vide. At Atkinson they found a portion of the 
party with which General Ashley had started from 
St. Louis in early May. From these he learned 
that Major Henry, discouraged by his many mis- 
fortunes, had sold out to his partner during the 
previous fall and retired from the fur trade. 
Having ascended the Missouri with keelboats to 
this point, Ashley had procured horses and set out 
with a pack-train for the mountains by way of the 
Platte valley. However, shortly after reaching 
the Platte, a war party of Indians, probably Paw- 
nees, had succeeded in driving off nearly all his 
herd, amounting to over a hundred. Thereupon 
Ashley, having ordered a portion of his party to 
return to the Missouri for more horses, while the 
rest remained with the baggage, had returned to 
St. Louis. Jim Beckwourth, who was a member 
of this party, tells us ^ that the General had re- 
cently been married, and returned " to transact 
some affairs of business and possibly to pay his 
devotions to his estimable lady." The *' affairs 
of business " were concerned with Ashley's can- 
didacy for the Governorship of Missouri, and 

1 " The Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth," by 
T. D. Bonner. 



1 68 The Splendid Wayfaring 

doubtless he returned for the election, which took 
place in August and resulted in his defeat. 

Immediately upon his arrival at Fort Atkinson, 
FItzpatrick wrote a letter to General Ashley at 
St. Louis, telling of the easy pass he had discov- 
ered, of the rich beaver country along the Green 
River, of his affair with the Snake Indians, and of 
his wreck at the mouth of the Sweetwater. Early 
in September, having procured a supply of horses, 
he set forth up the valley of the Platte to bring in 
his cached furs and the men he had left in camp 
there. The round trip was made in excellent 
time, for on October 26th he was back at Fort At- 
kinson with all his party and the pelts that had 
been recovered from the turbulent waters of the 
North Platte. 

Five days before FItzpatrlck's return. General 
Ashley had arrived from St. Louis, intent upon 
starting at once for the Green River country be- 
yond the Great Divide, that he might arrive in 
time for the spring hunt in which the best furs 
were taken. It was a daring if not a foolhardy 
project; for the distance to be traversed was at 
least eight hundred miles by the shortest possible 
route; winter was already beginning, and the prob- 
lem of feeding both men and horses on the way 
was likely to prove extremely difficult. 

When Ashley entered the fur trade two years 
before, it was his intention to operate on the upper 
waters of the Missouri and Yellowstone, building 



The Return 169 

forts at convenient points from which his bands 
of trappers should receive their supplies. Also, 
he had hoped to penetrate the region of the upper 
Columbia by way of the North Pass of Lewis and 
Clark. But, as we have seen, his experiences on 
the Missouri and Yellowstone had been rather 
discouraging, owing to the widespread hostility of 
the Plains Indians, and to the formidable competi- 
tion of the Missouri Fur Company. Now that 
Fitzpatrick had discovered a rich country beyond 
the Divide and an easy trail thereto, Ashley had 
decided to abandon the Missouri-Yellowstone re- 
gion and to push operations in the new territory 
on a different plan. Whereas, before, he had in- 
tended to build permanent posts at various stra- 
tegic points, he now decided to sweep vast scopes 
of country by means of wandering bands of trap- 
pers that, at a certain time each year, should bring 
the furs they had collected to some convenient 
place previously agreed upon, there to receive sup- 
plies for the following year. This annual gath- 
ering of the far-flung trappers was known as the 
rendezvous. Though this plan had already been 
employed to some extent by both the British and 
American traders, it was due to General Ashley's 
operations during the next few years that the ren- 
dezvous became one of the most important and 
picturesque features of the fur trade. 



XIV 

Ashley's long winter trail ^ 

ON November 3rd, 1824, General Ashley left 
Fort Atkinson for the far off Green River, 
intending to proceed by way of the Platte, the 
North Fork of the Platte, the Sweetwater, and 
South Pass, which Fitzpatrick had discovered dur- 
ing the spring of that year. In mid-afternoon of 
the second day out he came to the mouth of the 
Loup River where the greater portion of his party 
had been encamped since his return to St. Fouis 
during the early summer. There were twenty- 
five men in this band, and they had in charge fifty 
pack-horses, together with all the necessary im- 
pedimenta of a trapping expedition. During the 
summer and early fall they had fared well enough, 
having succeeded in collecting a considerable quan- 
tity of beaver both by trapping and by trading 
with occasional bands of Indians. However, dur- 
ing the recent weeks they had been rather poorly 
fed, as wild game, upon which they were forced 
to depend for food, had become scarce in that re- 

1 This and the following chapter are based on General Ash- 
ley's account given in a letter to General Atkinson, dated St. 
Louis, Dec. i, 1825; Ashley MSS, Missouri Hist. Society. The 
letter is quoted in full by Dale. 

170 



Ashley's Long Winter Trail 171 

gion. Great was their disappointment when, 
after looking forward to Ashley's coming with 
supphes, they learned that he had brought nothing 
with him, but planned to purchase from the Paw- 
nees, whose village was located some fifty miles 
up the Loup valley, a sufficient quantity of pro- 
visions to last until the buffalo herds should be 
reached. Certainly the long and hazardous jour- 
ney was not beginning well. There was no sing- 
ing in camp that night, and no one was in a mood 
for telling stories. Winter in a wild land lay 
ahead of these men, and there was no telHng how 
far away the bison might be. 

Of the twenty six men who sat in camp that 
night at the mouth of the Loup, only nine are re- 
membered by name: General Ashley, Thomas 
Fitzpatrick, Robert Campbell, James P. Beck- 
wourth, Moses Harris (generally known as 
"Black" Harris), one Clement (or Claymore), 
Baptiste La Jeunesse, one Le Brache, and one 
Dorway. The first three are great names in the 
annals of the Early West. Beckwourth, then on 
his first trip to the mountains, later became a chief 
of the Crow tribe and won great distinction among 
his adopted people in their many battles with the 
Blackfeet. At one time he was celebrated from 
the Missouri to the Pacific for his yarns, in all of 
which he figured as the hero. He is said to have 
been poisoned by the Crows in 1867 at a farewell 
dog-feast on the eve of his intended departure for 



172 The Splendid Wayfaring 

his new home on Cherry Creek, Colorado; for 
the Crows attributed their former success in the 
Blackfoot wars to their white chief and wished to 
keep his bones among them if they could not have 
the living man.^ " Black " Harris seems to have 
been another well known spinner of yarns, in his 
day, and greatly in love with the marvelous. He 
must have been more than ordinarily courageous 
and dependable, for Sublette more than once chose 
him for a companion on his long winter journeys. 
Of the last four, Clement (or Claymore) is re- 
membered vaguely as a leader of one of the Ash- 
ley parties on Green River during the spring and 
summer of 1825; La Jeunesse is only a name, re- 
corded by Beckwourth as that of his youthful 
friend; Le Brache did nothing more important 
than to get himself killed by Indians during the 
next summer; and Dorway, who according to 
Beckwourth was a Frenchman and a good swim- 
mer, has left us nothing but his name, and even 
that is evidently misspelled ! 

Early in the morning of November 6th the 
party broke camp and moved up the Loup River 
in the direction of the Pawnee Loup village, three 
couriers having been sent in advance to inform 
the Indians that Ashley was coming to trade with 
them. During the afternoon it began to snow 
heavily from the Northeast. All night the snow 

1 " Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth." Coutant's 
" History of Wyoming " gives an account of Beckwourth's death. 



Ashley* s Long Winter Trail 173 

fell, and all the next forenoon the string of men 
and horses pushed on through a white world, 
soundless but for the muffled footfall of the pack- 
animals and the whispering of the great tumbling 
flakes. By noon the Northwest wind began to 
blow, and by dusk it was a howling fury. 

During this time the rations of the men con- 
sisted of a half pint of flour per day for each man; 
and now that the grass was covered two feet deep, 
the horses were fed on cottonwood bark whenever 
the edible variety could be found. However, the 
men struggled on in fairly good spirits, looking 
forward to a plenteous supply of food in the In- 
dian town. 

The 8th day of November dawned windless and 
bitter cold, and the men labored on patiently 
through the drifts up the Loup valley, thinking of 
the feasts they were going to have when they 
reached the Pawnee Loups. It was mid-forenoon 
when the three couriers were seen returning along 
the rise that flanked the river, and these were 
hailed with a great cry in which the horses joined. 
But It was not good news that the couriers 
brought; for the Pawnee Loups had already left 
their village for their wintering ground at the 
Forks of the Platte. 

That evening the poorest of the horses was 
killed for meat. 

Two weeks passed by, during which frequent at- 
tempts were made to advance; but the cold was 



174 The Splendid Wayfaring 

intense, the snow deep, and most of the time a 
bHzzard wind was blowing. From the day when 
the first horse was killed until the 21st of No- 
vember, the party was able to advance only about 
twelve miles. By this time many of the animals 
were enfeebled with hunger and cold, and several 
had died, their carcasses filling the kettles of the 
half starved men. 

On the 22nd of November, the desperate party 
struck out across country southward and managed 
to reach the valley of the Platte fifteen miles 
away. There, by good fortune, they found an 
abundance of game for themselves and a good sup- 
ply of rushes for the horses. Having spent all 
the next day in feasting about cozy fires in the pro- 
tection of the timber that covered the bottom 
lands, they set out once more on the morning of 
the 24th. For ten days they toiled on up the val- 
ley of the Platte, which yielded plenty of fuel and 
horse feed, and their hunters kept them well sup- 
plied with the flesh of deer and elk. On Decem- 
ber 3rd they reached Plumb Point, near the site of 
the present city of Kearney; and there the Grand 
Pawnees were encamped, being on the way to their 
wintering ground on the Arkansas River. 

These Indians strongly advised Ashley to give 
up his original intention and to winter at the 
Forks of the Platte, which, they said, was the only 
place between Plumb Point and the mountains 
where fuel and horse feed could be found in suf- 



Ashley^ s Long Winter Trail 175 

ficient quantities. Though the weather was now 
extremely cold and stormy, Ashley resumed the 
march next ^orning. About midday the party 
overtook the tribe of Pawnee Loups, whose de- 
serted village on the Loup River had so keenly dis- 
appointed the half starved trappers during the sec- 
ond week of November. For eight days Ashley's 
men travelled in company with these Indians, 
reaching the latter's wintering place at the Forks 
of the Platte on December 12th. The suffering 
of the men during those eight days of blizzard 
weather had been intense, and half of the horses 
had fallen by the way. So Ashley decided to 
spend a fortnight at this place in order to purchase 
horses and supplies, and to prepare his party for 
the difficult journey that lay ahead, for he had 
been told that little wood was to be found within 
the next two hundred miles. 

The weather now turned fine, and though the 
hill-lands were still covered with two feet of snow, 
the valleys in many places had been swept bare by 
the great winds and afforded plenty of dry grass 
and rushes for the horses. " The day after our 
arrival at the Forks," writes Ashley, " the chiefs 
and principal men of the Loups assembled in coun- 
cil for the purpose of learning my wants and to de- 
vise means to supply them. I made known to 
them that I wished to procure twenty five horses 
and a few buffalo robes, and to give my men an 
opportunity of providing more amply for the 



176 The Splendid Wayfaring 

further prosecution of the journey. I requested 
that we might be furnished with meat to subsist 
upon while we remained with them, and promised 
that a liberal remuneration should be made for 
any services they might render me. After their 
deliberations were closed, they came to this con- 
clusion that notwithstanding they had been over- 
taken by unusually severe weather before reaching 
their wintering ground, by which they had lost a 
great number of horses, they would comply with 
my requisition in regard to horses and other neces- 
saries as far as their means would admit. Sev- 
eral speeches were made by the chiefs during the 
council, all expressive in the highest degree of their 
friendly disposition toward our government, and 
their conduct in every particular manifested the 
sincerity of their declarations." 

As a result of these negotiations, Ashley pro- 
cured twenty three horses and a liberal supply of 
beans, dried pumpkin, corn, cured meat " and 
other necessary things." Ten days spent in rest- 
ing and feasting served to put men and horses in 
fine spirits. 

" And now," says Beckwourth,^ " everything 
being ready for departure, our general intimated 
to Two Axe (Chief of the Loups) his wish to get 
on. Two Axe objected. ' My men are about 
to surround the buffalo,' he said; ' if you go now, 
you will frighten them. You must stay four days, 

1 " Life and Adventures of James P. Beckwourth," Chap. IV. 



Ashley* s Long Winter Trail 177 

then you may go.' His word was law, so we 
stayed accordingly. Within the four days ap- 
pointed they made the surround. There were en- 
gaged in this hunt from one to two thousand In- 
dians, some mounted and some on foot. They 
encompass a large space where the buffalo are con- 
tained, and closing in around them on all points, 
form a complete circle. Their circle, as first en- 
closed, may measure perhaps six miles in diameter 
with an irregular circumference determined by the 
movements of the herd. When the surround is 
formed, the hunters radiate from the main body to 
the right and left until the ring is entire. The 
chief then gives the order to charge, which is com- 
municated along the ring with the speed of light- 
ning. Every man then rushes to the center, and 
the work of destruction is begun. . . . The 
slaughter generally lasts two or three hours. . . . 
The field over the surround presents the appear- 
ance of one vast slaughter house. He who has 
been most successful in the work of devastation is 
celebrated as a hero, and receives the highest hon- 
ors from the fair sex, while he who has been so 
unfortunate as not to kill a buffalo is jeered and 
ridiculed by the whole band. Flaying, dressing 
and preserving the meat next engages their atten- 
tion and affords them full employment for several 
weeks." 

Arrangements for departure were made by Ash- 
ley's men on the 23rd of December, and on the 



1 78 The Splendid Wayfaring 

morning of the 24th, bidding goodbye to their 
friends, the Pawnee Loups, they began the west- 
ward march again. It had been Ashley's inten- 
tion to follow Fitzpatrick's route up the North 
Platte and the Sweetwater through South Pass; 
but the Loups had informed him that the North 
Fork afforded less wood than the South Fork, and 
accordingly he had decided to ascend the latter 
stream. " The weather was fine," writes 'the 
General, " the valleys literally covered with buf- 
falo, and everything seemed to promise a safe and 
speedy movement to the first grove of timber on 
my route, supposed to be about ten days' march." 
Christmas day dawned clear, and the party con- 
tinued to make good progress in the golden winter 
weather. During the afternoon they were over- 
taken by a band of Loups who had been sent out 
as envoys to the Arapahoes and Kiowas in the 
hope that they might be able to establish friendly 
relations between those tribes and their own 
people. 

The next day was cloudy and bitter cold. In 
the afternoon it began to snow and blow again, 
and the night was terrible. The blizzard contin- 
ued to rage until sundown of the 27th; and on the 
morning of the 28th four of the horses were so far 
gone with the cold that even when they were Hfted 
to their feet they could not stand. Abandoning 
the poor brutes to the wolves, the party labored 
on. So deep was the snow now that had it not 



Ashley's Long Winter Trail 179 

been for the large herds of bison moving down the 
river, progress would have been Impossible. 
These not only broke trail for the party, but also, 
In searching for food, pawed the snow away in 
many places, thus making it possible for the horses 
to graze. " We continued to move forward with- 
out loss of time," writes Ashley, " hoping to be 
able to reach the wood described by the Indians 
before all our horses should become exhausted. 
On the 1st of January, 1825, I was exceedingly 
surprised and no less gratified at the sight of a 
grove of timber, in appearance distant some two 
or three miles on our front. It proved to be a 
grove of cottonwoods of the sweetbark kind, suit- 
able for horse food, located on an Island offering, 
among other conveniences, a good situation for 
defence. I concluded to remain here several days 
for the purpose of recruiting my horses." 

At this point the five Loups bade farewell to the 
white men and, each carrying on his back a small 
bundle of faggots for fuel, struck southward to- 
ward the Arkansas where they expected to find the 
villages of the Arapahoes and Kiowas. Ten 
days were spent on the Island, during which time a 
strict guard was kept, as Ashley had been told that 
his old enemies, the Rees, were among the Arkan- 
sas Indians. Standing guard, the general tells us, 
" was much the most severe duty my men had to 
perform, but they did It with alacrity and cheer- 
fulness, as well as all other services required at 



i8o The Splendid Wayfaring 

their hands. Indeed, such was their pride and 
ambition in the discharge of their duties, that their 
privations in the end became sources of amusement 
to them." 

On the iitil of January, most of the cotton- 
woed bftrk fc*^»f been consumed, and the horses 
n#w being in fair condition, the party moved on up 
the river. Small sticks of driftwood and some 
occasional willow brush served for fuel, but no 
ediWe Cottonwood was found until the 20th, when 
thcf came to another island and camped. Here, 
nc«r the site of Fort Morgan, Colorado, they had 
their first view of the Rocky Mountains, which 
the General judged to be about sixty miles away. 

Ashley had been informed by the Indians that 
it would be impossible for him to cross the moun- 
tains during the winter; so he decided to move to 
their base and make a fortified camp, from which 
trapping could be carried on while small bands 
were exploring the country In search of a pass 
through which the whole party might be taken 
later on. After spending two days on the Island, 
that the horses might recuperate, they continued 
their journey up the South Platte until they 
reached a stream coming In from a northwesterly 
direction.^ Ascending this tributary (doubtless 
the Cache La Poudre), they camped on the 4th 
of February " In a thick grove of cottonwood and 

1 Up to this point Ashley had been following Major Long's 
route of the summer of 1820; henceforth his journey was through 
an unknown country. 



Ashley* s Long Winter Trail i8i 

willows " among the foothills of the Front Range. 
Long's Peak loomed huge to southward, seeming 
to Ashley no more than six or eight miles away, 
though the distance must have been at least thirty- 
five miles. 

After leaving the camp of January 20th, game 
had become scarcer and scarcer, and the party had 
been forced to rely almost entirely upon the pro- 
visions that had been procured from the Loups at 
the Forks of the Platte. 

The main body remained in camp here for three 
weeks, during which time small detachments were 
busily engaged in exploring. Finally, on the 26th 
of February, Ashley began the passage of the 
foothills, though the country was still " envel- 
oped in one mass of snow and ice." " Our pas- 
sage across the first range of mountains, which 
was exceedingly difficult and dangerous," so runs 
the General's narrative, " employed us three days, 
after which the country presented a different as- 
pect. Instead of finding the mountains more 
rugged as I advanced towards their summit and 
everything in their bosom frozen and torpid, af- 
fording nothing on which an animal could possibly 
subsist, they assumed quite a different character. 
The ascent of the hills (for they do not deserve 
the name of mountains) was so gradual as to 
cause but little fatigue in travelling over them. 
The valleys and south sides of the hills were but 
partially covered with snow, and the latter pre- 



1 82 The Splendid Wayfaring 

sented already in a slight degree the verdure of 
spring, while the former were filled with numer- 
ous herds of buffalo, deer and antelope." 

The party had now crossed from the country 
drained by the South Platte to that drained by the 
North Platte. Travelling slowly northwest by 
west for nine days through a region almost desti- 
tute of wood, they came on the loth of March 
to a stream " about one hundred feet wide, mean- 
dering north-eastwardly through a beautiful and 
fertile valley about ten miles in width." This 
was the Laramie River, and here two days were 
spent in camp, as the valley furnished a fairly 
good supply of dry grass for the horses and an 
abundance of fuel. 

Moving again on the I2th of March, the party 
camped in the evening at the foot of the Medi- 
cine Bow Mountains, which Ashley attempted to 
cross on the 14th and 15th; but finding the snow 
from three to five feet deep, he gave up the at- 
tempt and returned to his former camping place. 
Having rested a day, the party set out on the 17th, 
travelling northwardly along the base of the 
range. " As I thus advanced," writes the Gen- 
eral, " I was delighted with the variegated scen- 
ery presented by the valleys and mountains, which 
were enlivened by innumerable herds of buffalo, 
antelope and mountain sheep grazing on them; 
and what added no small degree of interest to the 
whole scene were the many small streams issuing 



Ashley's Long Winter Trail 183 

from the mountains, bordered with a thin growth 
of small willows and richly stocked with beaver. 
As my men could profitably employ themselves on 
these streams, I moved slowly along, averaging 
no more than five or six miles per day, and some- 
times remained two days at the same encamp- 
ment." 

On the 2 1 St of March, the appearance of the 
country seemed to justify another attempt to cross 
the mountains; and on the afternoon of the 23rd, 
after struggling through a " rough and broken 
country generally covered with snow," the party 
camped " on the edge of a beautiful plain," with 
the Medicine Bow range behind them. 

Moving westward across the plain on the 24th, 
they camped for the night on the North Platte, a 
few miles south of the point where the Union 
Pacific Railroad now crosses that stream. The 
25th and 26th days of March were spent in pass- 
ing over an " elevated rough country entirely des- 
titute of wood and affording no water save what 
could be procured by the melting of snow." Sage 
brush was used for fuel. 

During the next five days the party pushed 
across the Great Divide Basin, " which appeared 
to have no outlet," and succeeded in crossing the 
Continental Divide at a point that later came to 
be known as Bridger's Pass. 

During the night of the 2nd of April a party of 
Crow Indians, returning from an expedition 



184 The Splendid Wayfaring 

against the Snakes, drove off seventeen of the 
white men's horses and mules, leaving the party in 
a " dreadful condition," as the General tells us. 
With one man, Ashley boldly pursued the thieves 
and recovered three of the animals that had 
strayed from the stolen herd. On the 4th of 
April, nine men were sent out in pursuit of the 
Crows, while Ashley, with the balance of the 
party, laden with the packs of the stolen horses, 
" proceeded in search of a suitable encampment at 
which to await the return of the horse-hunters." 
On the 6th Ashley's weary band reached a small 
stream running northwest, which is now called 
Morton Creek. Here they found the first run- 
ning water and the first wood since leaving their 
camp of March 24th on the North Platte. About 
ten miles farther on down stream they reached an- 
other creek, later known as the Big Sandy, down 
which Fitzpatrick had led his men just one year 
before. Here they remained in camp until the 
nth of April, when the nine men, who had been 
sent in pursuit of the Crows, returned without 
horses. On the 12th the party started down the 
Sandy, making no more than eight miles a day, for 
the men were heavily laden and the weather was 
snowy and raw. After travelling down the 
stream for six days, they struck across country to 
the westward, and in the evening of April i8th, 
1825, they went into camp on the banks of " a 
beautiful river running south." They had 



Ashley's Long Winter Trail 185 

reached the Green one hundred sixty-six days after 
leaving Fort Atkinson on the Missouri ! 

Thus ended one of the most remarkable jour- 
neys in the annals of the West. Commenting 
thereon, Harrison Clifford Dale says: *' In 1824- 
25, Ashley plotted the first section of the central 
overland route to the Pacific. . . . He was the 
first white man to travel this route in the dead of 
winter, and the first to use that variation of South 
Pass, called by the name of one of his employees, 
James Bridger. He was the first American to in- 
vestigate the mountains of northern Colorado, the 
first to enter the Great Divide Basin, to cross al- 
most the entire length of southern Wyoming, and 
the first to navigate the dangerous canyons of 
Green River." ^ 

The latter exploit will be considered in the fol- 
lowing chapter. 
i"The Ashley-Smith Explorations," page n6. 



XV 

DOWN GREEN RIVER 

AFTER a whole winter of difficult travel 
through a wild country, much of which no 
white man had ever seen before, Ashley had 
reached the chosen trapping ground with his party 
afoot and heavily burdened. Obviously, men 
who were playing the role of the pack-horse could 
not be expected to explore a wide scope of country 
in search of furs, and it became necessary to cache 
the merchandise at some convenient place, that the 
horses, which the Crows had failed to drive off, 
might be used by the trappers. However, the 
point at which Ashley was then camped was too 
far north for his purposes; for he wished to ex- 
plore the country to the southward which no 
white man had yet penetrated. The General 
therefore decided to build a bullboat, descend the 
Green to " some eligible point about one hundred 
miles below," there to deposit the greater portion 
of the merchandise, " and make such marks as 
would designate it as a place of general ren- 
dezvous." 

Three days were spent in camp, during which 
some of the men were engaged in making a frame 
for the boat, while others were sent out to pro- 

i86 



Down Green River 187 

cure bison hides for the covering. When the 
boat was completed and loaded with the packs, 
Ashley divided his party Into four bands. One 
of six men was to proceed to the sources of the 
Green; another of seven was to explore the region 
of the Bear River range to the westward; and a 
third group of six was to push southward toward 
the Uinta Mountains. The leaders of the 
bands, only two of whom are known — Fltzpat- 
rlck and one Clement (or Claymore) — " were in- 
structed to endeavor to fall In with " the parties 
of Jededlah Smith and William Sublette who, as 
we have noted, had set out for the country be- 
yond South Pass at the time when FItzpatrIck be- 
gan his disastrous voyage down the Sweetwater. 
All the Ashley men then In the mountains were to 
assemble by the loth of July at a point to be 
marked by the General farther down the Green. 

All preparations having been made, the three 
bands, with the horses, left camp on Thursday, 
April 2 1 St, 1825; and Ashley, with the six re- 
maining men, began his voyage. 

'' After making about fifteen miles," so runs the 
narrative, " we passed the mouth of the creek 
which we had left on the morning of the i8th, and 
to which we gave the name of Sandy." Thus was 
named a stream destined to become famous In the 
great days of the California and Oregon Trail, 
when migrating thousands should pour down upon 
it through South Pass. 



1 88 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Soon after pushing off that morning, it had be- 
come evident to Ashley's little band that the boat 
was too heavily laden for safety, if, as might be 
expected, there should be rapids ahead. So, hav- 
ing decided to build another boat, they went into 
camp at four o'clock in the afternoon some twenty 
five miles below the Sandy. The new craft was 
finished by the evening of the 23rd, and on Sun- 
day morning, the 24th, they were off again, mak- 
ing thirty miles before they tied up for the night. 

During the 25th, they drifted rapidly through 
twenty miles of " mountainous country," passed 
the mouth of " a beautiful, bold-running stream 
about fifty yards wide " (now called Black's 
Fork), and camped on an island "after making 
about twenty five miles." For five days there- 
after they moved on down stream in a leisurely 
fashion " without observing any remarkable dif- 
ference in the appearance of the river or the sur- 
rounding country." On the last day of April they 
" arrived at the base of a lofty mountain, the sum- 
mit of which was covered with snow," and camped 
at the mouth of " a creek sixty feet wide " (now 
known as Henry's Fork), that entered from the 
west. " This spot," says Ashley, " I selected as 
a place of general rendezvous, which I designated 
by marks in accordance with the instruction given 
to my men." 

Thus far no difficulty had been encountered in 
the descent of the river, for the channel, in the 



Down Green River 189 

most shallow places, had been no less than four 
feet deep. Game had been abundant, for bison 
were at that time " travelling from the west in 
great numbers." 

Having spent the ist of May at the mouth of 
Henry's Fork, they pushed off again on the 2nd, 
and had proceeded only about a half mile when 
the mountains closed in on either side of the river, 
rising perpendicularly to a height of one thousand 
five hundred feet. The channel narrowed to half 
its former width; the current became swifter; and 
the moaning sound of shadowy waters filled the 
winding gorge into which the boatmen now rushed, 
ignorant of what might lie ahead and unable to 
stop had they wished to do so. At length, round- 
ing a bend, the boats swept out into a place where 
the huge walls fell back, leaving a pleasant little 
park along the margins of the stream. But 
scarcely had the boatmen felt relief from dread, 
when, swerving sharply to the left, the moaning 
current swirled them into a second fearsome gorge 
cut sheer through a lofty mountain. Once again 
they emerged into an open space, and once again 
the dark waters swept them onward through an 
overhanging canyon. And when they emerged 
again into an open space some ten miles below the 
mouth of Henry's Fork, they decided to call it a 
day, and camped. They had that day passed 
through the three canyons now called Flaming 
Gorge, Horseshoe, and Kingfisher. 



190 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Putting off in the morning of the 3rd of May, 
which was Sunday, they found the river " remark- 
ably crooked with more or less rapids every mile, 
caused by rocks which had fallen from the sides of 
the mountain," and these made brisk work for the 
crews. They had made about twenty miles from 
their last camp when, hearing a deep roar of wa- 
ters in the defile ahead of them, they hastily rowed 
to shore. Cautiously working their way along 
the bank, they " descended to the place from 
whence the danger was to be apprehended. It 
proved to be a perpendicular fall of ten or twelve 
feet produced by large fragments of rocks which 
had fallen from the mountain and settled in the 
river, extending entirely across the channel and 
forming an impregnable barrier to the passage of 
loaded watercraft." So they were obliged to un- 
load their boats and let them down over the falls 
by means of long lines which they had provided 
for that purpose. It was sunset when this opera- 
tion had been completed and the boats reloaded. 
Dropping down stream about a mile, they camped 
for the night. The falls over which they had 
passed have been given the name of their dis- 
coverer. 

During his stop at this point, Ashley painted his 
name and the year on a huge bowlder that had 
fallen from the canyon wall, and the first three 
letters were still visible when the Kolb Brothers 



Down Green River 191 






passed that way in 1911.^ The Inscription was 
seen by William L. Manly in 1840,^ and by J. W. 
Powell in 1869.^ 

During the 4th of May the boats sped safely 
onward in the midst of lofty heights " almost en- 
tirely composed of strata of rock of various colors 
(mostly red) and partially covered with a dwarf- 
ish growth of pine and cedar." In the morning 
of the 5th, having dropped six miles down stream, 
they came to a place where " the mountains grad- 
ually recede from the water's edge, and the river 
expands to the width of two hundred fifty yards, 
leaving the bottoms on each side from one to three 
hundred yards wide, interspersed with clusters of 
small willows." This little valley, surrounded by 
lofty mountain walls, later came to be known as 
Brown's Hole. There Ashley's party remained 
in camp until the morning of the 7th of May, 

1 " Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico," 
by E. L. Kolb. New York, 19 14. 

2"Deatht Valley in 1849," by V^ilHam L. Manly, San Jose, 
1894. 

3 " Exploration of the Colorado of the West," by J. W. Powell. 
Washington, 1878. 



192 The Splendid Wayfaring 

when, descending ten miles, they camped " on a 
spot of ground where several thousand Indians 
had wintered. Many of their lodges remained as 
perfect as when occupied. They were made of 
poles two or three inches in diameter, set up in 
circular form, and covered with cedar bark." 

The adventurers had proceeded but two miles 
on the 8th when once again they were swept into 
a narrow winding canyon (now called Lodore), 
the sides of which rose gloomily to a tremendous 
height. Says Ashley: " As we passed along be- 
tween these massy walls, which in a great degree 
excluded from us the rays of heaven and presented 
a surface as impassable as their body was im- 
pregnable, I was forcibly struck with the gloom 
which spread over the countenances of my men. 
They seemed to anticipate (and not far distant 
too) a dreadful termination of our voyage, and I 
must confess that I partook in some degree of 
what I supposed to be their feelings, for things 
around us had truly an awful appearance. We 
soon came to a dangerous rapid which we passed 
over with a slight injury to our boats. A mile 
lower down, the channel became so obstructed by 
the intervention of large rocks over and between 
which the water dashed with such violence as to 
render our passage in safety impracticable. The 
cargoes of our boats were therefore a second time 
taken out and carried about two hundred yards, 
to which place, after much labor, our boats were 



Down Green River 193 

descended by means of cords." About fifteen 
miles farther down stream they passed the mouth 
of the Yampa, which Ashley named Mary's River. 

Within the next few days the party succeeded 
in reaching the mouth of the Uinta River (which, 
according to Ashley, the Indians called the Tew- 
Inty) , having run the rapids of Whirlpool Canyon, 
'* where the mountains again close to the water's 
edge and are more terrific than any seen during 
the whole voyage." There, near the site of the 
present town of Ouray, Utah, Ashley's men cached 
the cargoes of their boats, as the General had de- 
cided to ascend the Uinta River to its source on 
the return trip to the place of rendezvous. They 
then continued the descent of the Green River, 
passing through Desolation Canyon to a point 
about fifty miles below the mouth of the Uinta, the 
river being bounded all the way '' by lofty moun- 
tains heaped together in the greatest disorder, ex- 
hibiting a surface as barren as can be imagined." 

They had been travelling for three weeks down 
the Green River (never before navigated by white 
men) , and now coming to the conclusion that noth- 
ing was to be gained by continuing the voyage, 
they abandoned their boats and started back afoot 
for their cache at the mouth of the Uinta. 
Within a few days they fell in with a friendly band 
of Utah Indians. *' I understood by signs from 
them," says Ashley, '* that the river which I had 
descended, and which I supposed to be the Rio 



194 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Colorado of the West,^ continued its course as far 
as they had any knowledge of it, southwest 
through a mountainous country. They also in- 
formed me that all the country known to them 
south and west from the Tewinty River was al- 
most entirely destitute of game, that the Indians 
inhabiting that region subsist principally on roots, 
fish and horses." 

Having procured horses from the Utahs, the 
white men pushed on to the mouth of the Uinta, 
loaded their animals with the merchandise that 
had been cached there, and proceeded up the 
Uinta to the mouth of the Duchesne, which they 
followed through a mountainous and sterile coun- 
try to its headwaters. From thence they 
crossed the Uinta Mountains and came upon the 
upper tributaries of the Weber River, which Ash- 
ley took to be the Buenaventura, a mythical stream 
then supposed to flow Into the Bay of San Fran- 
cisco! After travelling sixty miles down the 
Weber, they fell In with a portion of the band that 
had set out with Smith and Sublette from the camp 
on the Sweetwater during the previous summer. 
With this band were twenty nine men who had de- 
serted from the Hudson Bay Company and were 
now bringing their furs to the rendezvous of the 
American trappers. From these and from a band 
of Utahs recently encountered, Ashley gained the 

1 Above the mouth of the Grand River the Rio Colorado of 
the West is called Green River. 



Down Green River 195 

Impression that the stream he had been following 
emptied into a lake, from the western end of which 
a great river flowed westward to the sea. " The 
necessity of my unremitted attention to my busi- 
ness," writes Ashley, " prevented me from grat- 
ifying a great desire to descend the river to the 
ocean, which I ultimately declined with the great- 
est reluctance." It will be noted from this remark 
how little was then known of the vast central coun- 
try between the Continental Divide and the Pa- 
cific. Ashley could not guess that he was then 
seven hundred miles distant from the ocean by an 
air-line route, and that in all the vast triangular 
space between the Snake and the Colorado no 
river rising in the Rockies reached the sea. 

From the camp on the Weber, the combined 
parties set out for the appointed place of ren- 
dezvous. 



XVI 

THE RENDEZVOUS 

TEN weeks had elapsed since Ashley's party 
had separated into four bands and struck 
out in as many directions from the camp on the 
Green River fifteen miles above the Sandy's 
mouth; and now all the trappers employed by 
Ashley in that country, including the parties of 
Smith and Sublette who had wintered west of the 
Divide, began to arrive at the place of rendezvous, 
their pack-animals laden with the precious spoils 
of many a beaver stream. By the ist of July, 
1825, one hundred twenty men, including the 
twenty-nine who had deserted from the Hudson 
Bay Company, were encamped on the Green at 
the mouth of Henry's Fork. Beckwourth tells 
us that many of the Frenchmen had their squaws 
and children with them, and that the encampment 
was " quite a little town." 

When all had come in, the General opened his 
goods, " consisting of flour, sugar, coffee, blankets, 
tobacco, whisky, and all other articles necessary 
for that region." Whereupon, so Beckwourth 
assures us, the jubilee began. Some of these men 
had left St. Louis with Henry In the spring of 1822 

196 



The Rendezvous 197 

and had been in the wilderness ever since. Many 
had not tasted sugar or coffee for many months, 
having lived entirely on the game of the country, 
and tobacco and whisky were luxuries not to be 
despised. These articles were purchased at enor- 
mous prices, and many a trapper not only swal- 
lowed in a day of ease what he had earned in a 
year of constant danger and hardship, but when 
the rendezvous broke up found himself indebted 
to his employer for his next year's outfit. Story- 
telling, gambling, drinking, feasting, horse-racing, 
wrestling, boxing, and target-shooting were the 
order of the day — " all of which were indulged in 
with a heartiness that would astonish more civ- 
ilized societies," says Beckwourth. 

The free trappers, who were not paid by the 
year as were the hired trappers, but, being their 
own masters, trapped where they pleased and sold 
their furs at the annual rendezvous, were the 
" cocks of the walk." These boasted freely with 
the naivete of children — or Homeric heroes. 
As Joseph Meek tells us : " They prided them- 
selves on their hardihood and courage; even on 
their recklessness and profligacy. Each claimed 
to own the best horses; to have had the wildest 
adventures; to have made the most narrow es- 
capes; to have killed the greatest number of bears 
and Indians; to be the greatest favorite with the 
Indian belles, the greatest consumer of alcohol, 
and to have the most money to spend — that is. 



198 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the largest credit on the books of the company. 
If his hearers did not beheve him, he was ready to 
run a race with them, to beat them at ' cold 
sledge,' or to fight, if fighting were preferred — 
ready to prove what he aflHrmed in any way the 
company pleased." ^ 

While this orgy proceeds and the year's busi- 
ness is being transacted, let us see what of perma- 
nent value these men had accomplished in their 
wanderings; for it is not because they brought 
back much beaver that we remember them now. 

A year has passed since we last saw Jedediah 
Smith and William L. Sublette. They were then 
pushing westward up the Sweetwater with a string 
of pack-horses and about fifty men, and they had 
just said farewell to Fitzpatrick bound by boat for 
Fort Atkinson with the proceeds of his spring 
hunt. Having crossed South Pass and followed 
the Little and Big Sandys down to the Green, the 
party was divided into three bands — one under 
Sublette, one under Etienne Provost, and one, con- 
sisting of only six men, under Jedediah Smith. 
From this point Smith turned northward, moving 
slowly and trapping as he went, following the 
course of the Green River to the mouth of Horse 
Creek, which comes in from the west at a point 
slightly south of the 43rd parallel. Ascending 
this stream to its source, he crossed over to the 
headwaters of Hoback's River which he descended 

1 Victor. "The River of the W^est." Chap. I. 



The Rendezvous 199 

to the Snake River. After travelling about one 
hundred miles down the latter stream, he turned 
northward, striking across country in the direction 
of Clark's Fork of the Columbia. He was now 
well into the territory that was being worked by 
the roving bands of the Hudson Bay Company, 
operating from various posts, the chief of which 
was Fort Vancouver on the lower Columbia. 
Previous to leaving the Snake River, he had been 
travelling practically the same route that had been 
followed by the eastbound Astorians under Robert 
Stuart just twelve years before. Buffalo were 
plentiful all along the way, so that the little party 
suffered no want. Also, many streams rich in 
beaver had been found, and by the end of summer 
Smith's horses were fairly well loaded with pelts. 
Then one day in early fall a band of Iroquois 
Indians, led by a Canadian half-breed named 
Pierre, came to Smith's camp in a most wretched 
condition. They were without horses and guns, 
and were on the verge of starvation. Smith 
learned from them that they had started during 
February of that year from Spokane House on 
the Spokane River, a branch of the upper Colum- 
bia, with a party of Hudson Bay Company men 
under Alexander Ross, bound for the buffalo coun- 
try at the headwaters of the Missouri and Yellow- 
stone. They had crossed the Bitter Root Moun- 
tains and the Continental Divide with Ross dur- 
ing the winter, had hunted in the region of the 



200 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Three Forks of the Missouri during the spring, 
and then, swinging southward and westward 
through what is now called the Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park, had begun to trap on the upper waters 
of the Snake. During June they had been de- 
tached from the main party and sent southward. 
All summer long they had wandered about, taking 
many beaver; but a week or two before falling in 
with the Americans, they had been attacked by a 
band of Snake Indians and had been robbed of 
horses, guns, and most of their peltry. However, 
they still had nine hundred skins, worth at that 
time in St. Louis not less than $5,000. 

Now Smith was both a Christian and a Yankee. 
Being a Christian, he could do no less than give 
succor to those in distress; being a Yankee, he 
drove a hard bargain at the same time. He 
would escort the Iroquois to Pierre's Hole where 
Alexander Ross was thought to be encamped with 
the main party, and for such services he would 
accept the nine hundred skins in advance ! At 
least, such was the story the Indians told to Ross. 
The unfortunate Indians, having accepted Smith's 
proposition, all the furs thus far acquired were 
cached, and the two parties started for Pierre's 
Hole. They had travelled only a few days when 
they met a band of Hudson Bay men who had been 
sent out to find the missing Iroquois, and by these 
Smith was guided to Ross's camp on the Salmon 
River near the mouth of the Pashlmari. 



The Rendezvous 201 

It was now the middle of October, 1824 — 
about the time when Ashley at Fort Atkinson on 
the Missouri was preparing for his long winter 
journey up the Platte and across the Rockies to 
the Green River. Alexander Ross was ready to 
start for Flathead House, a Hudson Bay Com- 
pany post on the upper waters of Clark's Fork 
of the Columbia, and Smith decided to accompany 
him, being eager to view the country and wishing 
to learn as much as possible about the doings of 
the British traders in that region. Surely our 
hero did not lack audacity! 

On November ist Ross's party, with their self- 
invited American guests, crossed the Bitter Root 
Mountains, by the same route that Lewis and 
Clark had taken nineteen years before, and 
reached Flathead House on November 26th. 
On the same day Peter Skeene Ogden, one of the 
greater leaders of the Hudson Bay Company, ar- 
rived from Spokane House with an expedition 
bound for the Snake River country. Ogden re- 
mained there until December 20th, when he 
started for the spring trapping grounds. It is 
believed that Smith, having gathered all the in- 
formation possible during his month's sojourn at 
Flathead House, accompanied Ross southward up 
the Bitter Root River to its source, thence across 
the divide to the Salmon River. 

Early in the spring of 1825 Smith and his men, 
after recovering the peltry they had cached dur- 



202 The Splendid Wayfaring 

ing the previous fall, arrived in Cache Valley 
slightly below the point where the Bear River, 
flowing southward, crosses the Utah line. Here 
they met Sublette's party, and it is easy to imagine 
with what eagerness the reunited comrades told 
of their adventures and wanderings. 

Sublette and his men had been on a wild goose 
chase, though they too had succeeded in taking 
much fur by the way. Striking south and west 
from the mouth of the Sandy, where they had said 
farewell to the parties under Provost and Smith 
during the summer of 1824, they had come upon 
the upper waters of the Bear River which they 
took to be the Buenventura. They had followed 
this river throughout the remainder of the sum- 
mer, trapping as they went. Rounding the 
Wasatch Mountains on the north and following 
the stream westward and southward, they had 
reached Cache Valley late in the fall, and finding 
it a sheltered place with plenty of wood, they had 
decided to winter there. 

During the winter there had been much dis- 
cussion among Sublette's men as to what would 
be found at the mouth of the stream upon which 
they were encamped, and by way of settling the 
discussion James Bridger, then but twenty years 
old, had descended Bear River to Its mouth, where, 
quite naturally, he had found salt water! Re- 
turning to winter quarters, he reported to his com- 
panions what he had discovered, and it was be- 



The Rendezvous 203 

lieved that he had actually reached an arm of the 
Pacific Ocean ! 

The party under Provost, after parting from 
their comrades at the Sandy's mouth, had pushed 
southward for a considerable distance along the 
Green during the late summer of 1824; then turn- 
ing westward, they had crossed the upper waters 
of the Bear and reached the Weber, which also 
empties into Salt Lake, but by a much more direct 
route than that of the Bear. Believing that he 
was on the Buenaventura, Provost descended the 
Weber; but how far he proceeded before going 
into winter quarters is unknown. There seems to 
be some reason to suspect that he may have 
reached Great Salt Lake in the fall of 1824, and 
that he spent the winter there near the Weber's 
mouth, thus antedating Bridger's discovery by a 
few months; but proof is wanting. At least it is 
known that Provost's band was at the mouth of 
the Weber early in the spring. Also, Jedediah 
Smith, so Ashley tells us in his letter to General 
Atkinson, had fallen " on the waters of the Grand 
Lake of Buenaventura " (meaning Great Salt 
Lake) on his return from Flathead House before 
he reached Cache Valley. 

Thus, within a few months, three of the Ashley 
bands had reached Great Salt Lake by different 
routes. However, James Bridger is generally 
considered the discoverer. 

During the spring hunt of 1825 a band of 



204 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Hudson Bay men, that had been sent southward 
by Ogden from the upper Snake River country 
where he was then operating, fell In with a small 
detachment of Ashley men under Johnson Gard- 
ner on the Bear River. Gardner Induced the 
British trappers to desert their employer and bring 
their catch (worth a fortune) to the American 
rendezvous. These were the men whom Ashley 
met, in company with one of his own bands, on the 
upper reaches of the Weber during June. Hap- 
pily, Gardner's right to be remembered does not 
rest wholly upon this rather questionable transac- 
tion. His name goes linked with that of Hugh 
Glass; for in the winter of 1832 when Glass was 
killed by his old enemies, the Rees, on the frozen 
Yellowstone, not far below the mouth of the Big 
Horn, it was Johnson Gardner who, according to 
the famous traveller, Maximilian, Prince of Wied- 
Neuwied, followed the murderers and " killed two 
of them with his own hands." ^ 

And now all the Ashley men, who had been 
widely scattered in seven bands, were reunited on 
the Green River at the mouth of Henry's Fork, 
having explored the country bordering the Rockies 
on the west from the upper waters of Clark's Fork 
of the Columbia in latitude 47° 30', to a point 
slightly below latitude 40° on the Green River. 

1 " Maximilian's Travels in North America," page 304. Beck- 
wourth also tells the story in Chapter XVII of the "Life and 
Adventures." 



The Rendezvous 205 

Let us note the significance of what these men were 
doing. 

In 1792 Captain Gray of the Boston trading 
ship, Columbia^ had discovered the mouth of the 
great river which he named after his vessel. In 
1805 Lewis and Clark had crossed the Contin- 
ental Divide from the headwaters of the Missouri 
River and had descended the Columbia to the 
Pacific. In the fall of 18 10 Major Andrew 
Henry, as we have noted, had crossed the Con- 
tinental Divide and built a trading post on Henry's 
Fork of the Snake River, but owing to the hostility 
of the Blackfeet he had been forced to abandon 
his position the next year. In 181 1 John Jacob 
Astor's men had founded the fur-trading estab- 
lishment of Astoria at the Columbia's mouth. 
Thus by right of discovery, exploration, and occu- 
pation, the Americans claimed the great Oregon 
country lying west of the Rockies and north of 
latitude 42°, the northern boundary of the Span- 
ish domain. But possession was quite another 
matter. In 18 14, as a result of the war with 
England, Astor's great enterprise had failed, and 
the British Northwest Company had taken pos- 
session of Astoria, renaming it Fort George. 
Since that time English traders — first the North- 
west Company, then the Hudson Bay Company — 
had been " the lords of the land," although an 
agreement had been made in 18 18 whereby the 
British and the Americans were to have equal 



2o6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

rights in the Oregon country. But so long as 
the Americans knew no overland route save those 
that had been followed by Lewis and Clark and 
by the Astorlans, " joint occupancy " virtually 
meant British occupancy; for the northern passes 
across the Rockies were very difficult to cross, and 
the inveterate hostility of the Blackfeet made that 
way extremely hazardous. Had not a more ad- 
vantageous road been found across the Continental 
Divide during those early years, It is most prob- 
able that the English would have become perma- 
nently established throughout the territory drained 
by the Columbia system; for always the flag fol- 
lows the trader. 

Thomas J. Farnham, who travelled overland to 
Oregon in 1839-40, when the stream of emigra- 
tion was already beginning to flow across the 
Rockies, made the following just observations re- 
garding the great central route to the Pacific: 
" The Platte, therefore, when considered in rela- 
tion to our intercourse with the habitable countries 
of the Western Ocean, assumes an unequalled im- 
portance among the streams of the Great Prairie 
wilderness. But for it, it would be impossible 
for man or beast to travel those arid plains, des- 
titute, alike, of wood, water, and grass, save what 
of each Is found along Its course. Upon the 
headwaters of the North Fork too Is the only 
way or opening in the Rocky Mountains at all 
practicable for a carriage road through them. 









a../lFF^^ ^ A^^*.^ /T^*^ /-.^;i.>5t.. ^,^^/^^>^_,, ^• 


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Original in possession of the Missouri Historical Society- 
Last Page of the Articles of Agreement Whereby A^shley's 
Interests in the Mountains Were Transferred to Smith, Jackson 
and Sublette. 



The Rendezvous 207 

That travelled by Lewis and Clark is covered with 
perpetual snow; that near the debouchure of the 
South Fork of the river is over high and nearly- 
impassable precipices; that travelled by myself, 
farther south, is, and ever will be impassable for 
wheel carriages. But the Great Gap (South 
Pass) seems designed by nature as the great gate- 
way between the nations on the Atlantic and Pa- 
cific Oceans."^ 

Dr. John McLoughlin, factor of the Hudson 
Bay Company's post. Fort Vancouver, used to say: 
" For all coming time we and our children will 
have uninterrupted possession of this country, as 
it can never be reached by families but by water 
around Cape Horn." And upon being told that 
he would live to see the coming of the Yankees, 
he would answer: "As well might they under- 
take to go to the moon ! " ^ He was thinking of 
the northern passes. 

But now Ashley's men under Fitzpatrick had 
found a great natural road leading up the valleys 
of the Platte and the Sweetwater, over the scarcely 
noticeable Divide at South Pass; and Ashley him- 
self had travelled a variation of this route by way 
of the South Platte and Bridger's Pass. The 
gateway of the mountains had swung open at last, 
and henceforth there would be no lack of Ameri- 
cans in the country west of the Rockies. It was 

1 " Travels in the Great Western Prairies." 
2 Clarke. "Pioneer Days of Oregon History." 



2o8 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the beginning of the invasion of the Far West. 
In course of a few years the settlers would follow 
the trail of the trappers in ever increasing num- 
bers, until, when the river of humanity should be 
in full flood forty years later, ten thousand 
wagons, bound for Oregon and California, would 
trundle up that way in a single season.^ 

Down from the North as far as Snake River 
had come the English. Up from the South, pene- 
trating the wilderness as far as Utah Lake, and 
spreading up the coast of California, had 
come the Spaniards. Between the countries 
known to the British and the Spanish lay an un- 
known land. And now, at the Green River ren- 
dezvous in July, 1825, already were gathered to- 
gether some of those who, within the next two 
years, were destined to lift the veil of mystery 
from that vast triangular space. 

1 Oberholzer. " A History of the United States Since the 
Civil War." Macraillan, 1917. Vol. I, page 304. 



XVII 

BACK TO THE STATES 

ASHLEY'S luck which, as we have seen, had 
been bad enough so long as he operated east 
of the Rockies, had now turned. Not only had 
his own bands brought in a large quantity of 
beaver to the Green River rendezvous, but from 
the twenty nine Hudson Bay Company trappers, 
who had deserted from Ogden's party, he had pro- 
cured a fortune " for a mere song," as he is said 
to have remarked. Says Beckwourth: "There 
lay the General's fortune in one immense pile, 
collected at the expense of severe toil, privation, 
suffering, peril, and, in some cases, loss of life. 
The skins he had purchased from Ogden's men 
and from free trappers had cost him compara- 
tively little. If he should meet with no misfor- 
tune on his way to St. Louis, he would receive 
enough to pay all his debts and have an ample 
fortune besides." The exact quantity of beaver 
fur collected by Ashley at the rendezvous of 1825 
is not known. Contemporary estimates vary 
from forty to one hundred thirty packs of one 
hundred pounds each, the valuation ranging from 
$40,000 to $200,000. It is probable that he col- 

209 



210 The Splendid Wayfaring 

lected no less than $100,000 worth of furs — an 
Imposing fortune In those days when the pur- 
chasing power of a dollar was far greater than 
now. 

" The packs were all arranged," continues Beck- 
wourth, " and our Salt Lake friends (the desert- 
ers) offered him (Ashley) the loan of all the 
horses he wanted, and engaged to escort him to the 
Wind River." All preparations for the return 
to St. Louis being completed, Ashley bade fare- 
well to those who were remaining in the country, 
and set out with a large pack-train and fifty men, 
half of the latter being Ogden's trappers who 
would return with the horses after the General 
had reached a point on the Big Horn from whence 
he could proceed by water to the States. Jede- 
dlah Smith was one of those who were chosen to 
accompany the General to St. Louis. 

It IS probable that Ashley would have attempted 
to navigate the Sweetwater and the Platte, had not 
Fitzpatrlck's voyage of the previous summer re- 
sulted in disaster. He himself was unfamiliar 
with the Big Horn and the Yellowstone, having 
ascended with Major Henry only to the mouth 
of the latter river in 1822; but a number of those 
who were now returning with him had ascended 
the Yellowstone with Henry in the fall of 1823, 
and had followed up the Big Horn on their way 
to South Pass during the spring and summer of 
1824. 



Back to the States 211 

Following the Green northward from Henry's 
Fork to the mouth of the Big Sandy, Ashley's 
party ascended the latter and, crossing the Great 
Divide at South Pass, came on the upper reaches 
of the Sweetwater. Here the main body with the 
pack animals turned northward toward the Popo 
Agie, while Ashley, with twenty men and twice as 
many horses, proceeded down stream in order to 
recover forty-five packs of beaver that Sublette's 
party had collected, during the spring hunt of 
1824, and cached before pushing on across the 
mountains to the Green during the following 
summer. 

Within a few days after separating from the 
main party, Ashley's men had raised the cache and 
started in a northwesterly direction to rejoin their 
comrades on the Wind River, when they were 
attacked by a band of Blackfeet three times their 
own in number. " They made their appearance 
at the break of day, yelling in the most hideous 
manner," writes Ashley S " and using every means 
in their power to alarm our horses, which they so 
effectually did that the horses, although closely 
hobbled, broke by the guard and ran off. A part 
of the Indians being mounted, they succeeded in 
getting all the horses but two, and wounded one 
man. An attempt was also made to take our 
camp, but in that they failed." 

During the next night Ashley sent out a small 

1 Letter to General Atkinson, previously quoted. 



212 The Splendid Wayfaring 

band to find the main body of trappers and bring 
back horses with which to transport the furs. 
Knowing the character of Jed Smith, It seems a 
reasonable guess that he led this band. During 
the second day after the battle the little party 
returned safely with the necessary animals, and 
Ashley proceeded on his way, none the worse for 
his encounter with the Blackfeet. After making 
about ten miles, he camped. " That night about 
twelve o'clock," the General tells us, " we were 
again attacked by a party of Crow Indians." 
Again Beckwourth, who was with Ashley, Is on 
hand with the particulars: " I and my boy Bap- 
tlste (La Jeunesse) were sleeping among the 
packs, as were also some of the other men, when 
the sentinel came to me to tell me that he had 
seen something which he believed to be Indians. 
I arose and satisfied myself that he was correct. 
I sent a man to acquaint the General, at the same 
time awaking the boy and two men near me. We 
noiselessly raised ourselves, took as good aim as 
possible, and, at a signal from me, all four fired. 
We saw two men run. By this time the whole 
camp was aroused. . . . Our whole force was on 
guard from that time till the morning, when we 
discovered two dead Indians lying where we had 
directed our aim in the night. We at first sup- 
posed the two Indians belonged to the Blackfeet, 
but we subsequently found they were Crows. 
One of them wore a fine pair of buckskin leggings, 



Back to the States 213 

which I took from him and put on myself." 
During the day after this slight affair, Ashley's 
band overtook the main party, probably near the 
mouth of the Popo Agie, which flows northwardly 
into the Wind River. Shortly after this, while 
the reunited bands were moving down the Wind 
River, they encountered a large band of Indians. 
Again Beckwourth will oblige us: "The alarm 
was given, and, on looking out, we saw an immense 
body of them, well mounted, charging directly 
down upon our camp. Every man seized his rifle 
and prepared for the living tornado. The Gen- 
eral gave orders for no man to fire until he did. 
By this time the Indians were within half pistol- 
shot. Greenwood (one of our party) pronounced 
them Crows and called out several times not to 
shoot. We kept our eyes upon our General; he 
pulled trigger, but his gun missed fire, and our 
camp was immediately filled with their warriors. 
Most fortunate it was for us that the General's 
gun did miss fire, for they numbered over a thou- 
sand, and not a man of us would have escaped to 
see the Yellowstone. 

" Greenwood, who knew the Crows, acted as 
interpreter between our General and the Indian 
chief, whose name was Absaroka Betetsa, Spar- 
row-Hawk Chief. After making numerous in- 
quiries about our success in hunting, the chief in- 
quired where we were from. 

" ' From Green River,' was the reply. 



214 ^^^ splendid Wayfaring 

"* You killed two Blackfeet?' 

" ' Yes; 

" ' Where are their scalps? My people want 
to dance.' 

" ' Don't show them! ' cried Greenwood to us. 

" Turning to the Indian : ' We did not take 
their scalps.' 

" ' Ugh ! That is strange.' 

" During this colloquy I had buried my scalp 
in the sand, and concealed my leggings, knowing 
they had belonged to a Crow. The chief gave or- 
ders to his warriors to move on, many of them 
keeping with us on our road to their camp, which 
was but a short distance off. Soon after reaching 
there, an Indian woman issued from a lodge and 
approached the chief. She was covered with 
blood, and, crying in the most piteous tones, she 
addressed the chief: 'These are the men who 
killed my son, and will you not avenge his death? ' 
She was almost naked, and, according to their 
custom when a near relative is slain, had inflicted 
wounds all over her body in token of her deep 
mourning. The chief turned to the General, then 
said: 'The two men who were killed in your 
camp were not Blackfeet but my own warriors; 
they were good horse thieves and brave men. 
One of them was a son of this woman, and she is 
crying for his loss. Give her something to make 
her cease her cries, for it angers me to see her 
grief.' 



Back to the States 215 

*' The General cheerfully made her a present 
of what things he had at hand, to the value of 
about $50. ' Now,' said the chief to the woman, 
' go to your lodge and cease your crying.' She 
went away seemingly satisfied. 

" During the day two other Indians came to 
the encampment, and, displaying each a wound, 
said : ' See here what you white people have done 
to us. You shot us; white people shoot good in 
the dark.' The General distributed some pres- 
ents among these two men. Happening to look 
among their numerous horses, we recognized some 
that had been stolen from us previous to our 
reaching Green Rlver.^ The General said to the 
chief: ' I believe I see some of my horses among 
yours.' 

" ' Yes, we stole them from you.' 
" ' What did you steal my horses for? ' 
" ' I was tired with walking. I had been to 
fight the Blackfeet, and, coming back, would have 
called at your camp. You would have given me 
tobacco, but that would not carry me. When we 
stole them they were very poor. They are now 
fat. We have plenty of horses; you can take all 
that belong to you.' The chief then gave orders 
for them to deliver up all the horses taken from 
our camp." 

Now following the Wind River to where it en- 
ters the Big Horn Mountains, Ashley detailed a 

1 See Chap. XIV. 



2i6 The Splendid Wayfaring 

small band to explore the canyon by water, while 
he, with the rest of the men and the pack train, 
pushed on over the range by way of Bad Pass, a 
distance of about thirty miles. On August 7th 
they reached the point where the Big Horn River 
issues from the mountains. Here twenty five men 
turned back with the horses, and, with the other 
twenty five, Ashley, having built bullboats for the 
purpose, began his voyage to the States with his 
precious cargo. 

No difficulties were met in descending to the 
mouth of the Yellowstone, where the party ar- 
rived at midday on August 19th. " In effecting 
a landing at the junction of the two rivers," so 
Beckwourth informs us, '* we unfortunately sunk 
one of our boats, on board of which were thirty 
packs of beaver skins, and away they went, float- 
ing down the current as rapidly as though they 
had been live beaver. All was noise and confu- 
sion in a moment, the General, in a perfect fer- 
ment, shouting to us to save the packs. All the 
swimmers plunged in after them, and every pack 
was saved. The noise we made attracted a strong 
body of U. S. troops down to the river, who were 
encamped near the place, and officers, privates, 
and musicians lined the shore. They were under 
the command of General Atkinson, then negotiat- 
ing a treaty with the Indians of that region on 
behalf of the Government. General Atkinson 
and our General happened to be old acquaintances. 



Back to the States 217 

and when we had made everything snug and se- 
cure, we all went into camp and freely indulged 
in festivities." 

It will be remembered that here, on the tongue 
of land between the two rivers, Major Henry had 
built a fort in the fall of 1822. After it was 
abandoned a year later, the Indians set fire to it, 
but Ashley found three sides of the stockade and 
a part of the buildings still standing. 

General Atkinson was about to start up the 
Missouri for the purpose of making a treaty with 
the Blackfeet, and Ashley decided to accompany 
his old friend. After ascending to the mouth of 
the Porcupine, and finding no Indians, the expedi- 
tion returned to the mouth of the Yellowstone 
within a week. Ashley now abandoned his 
clumsy bullboats and transferred his cargo to a 
stauncher craft furnished by General Atkinson. 

On the 27th of August the combined force of 
soldiers and trappers began the descent of the 
Missouri, and on the 19th of September arrived 
at '' Council Bluffs," ^ that is to say, at Fort At- 
kinson. Here Ashley's party remained three 
days, '* which passed in continual festivities," the 
trappers " feeling themselves almost at home." 

Let Beckwourth finish the account of Ashley's 
homeward voyage : " Providing ourselves with a 
good boat, we bade adieu to the troops and con- 

iThe original Council Bluffs, so called because Lewis and 
Clark there held a council with the Indians in 1804, is about 14 
miles above the city of that name. 



2i8 The Splendid Wayfaring 

tinued our descent of the river. The current of 
the Missouri is swift, but to our impatient minds 
a locomotive would have seemed too tardy in 
removing us from the scenes of hardship and 
privation to the homes of our friends, our sweet- 
hearts, our wives and little ones. 

" Those who reside In maritime places, and 
have witnessed the hardy tars step ashore in their 
native land, can form an adequate idea of the 
happy return of the mountaineers from their wan- 
derings on the Plains to St. Louis, which is the 
great seaport. Arriving at St. Charles, twenty 
miles above St. Louis, the General despatched a 
courier to his agents, Messrs. Warndorf and 
Tracy, to Inform them of his great success, and 
that he would be in with his cargo the next day 
about noon. When we came in sight of the city 
we were saluted by a piece of artillery, which 
continued its discharges until we landed at the 
market place. There were not less than a thou- 
sand persons present, who hailed our landing with 
shouts which deafened our ears. Those who had 
parents, brothers and sisters, wives, or sweet- 
hearts, met them at the landing; and such a rush- 
ing, crowding, pulling, hauling, weeping, and 
laughing I had never before witnessed. Every- 
one had learned of our approach by the courier. 

'' Our cargo was soon landed and stored, the 
men receiving information that they would be paid 
off that afternoon at the store of Messrs. Warn- 



Back to the States 219 

dorf and Tracy. We reported thither in a body 
to receive our pay. The full amount was counted 
out in silver to each man. Accordingly we all 
repaired to Barras's Hotel, and had a glorious 
time. The house was thronged with our friends 
besides, who all felt themselves included in the 
General's hospitality. 

" General Ashley called on us the next morning 
and, perceiving that we had ' run all night,' told 
us to keep on another day at his expense, adding 
that, if we wished to indulge in a ride, he would 
pay for carriages. We profited by his hint, and 
did not fail to take into our party a good share 
of lasses and mountaineers. The next morning 
the General again visited us and, seeing we were 
pretty sober, paid the bill." 



XVIII 

GENERAL ASHLEY RETIRES 

AFTER the rendezvous had broken up In 
July and Ashley's party had begun the jour- 
ney to St. Louis with the furs, the body of trap- 
pers left behind under the command of Sublette 
moved leisurely up the Green River for a con- 
siderable distance. Then, having agreed upon 
Cache Valley as the place for the fall rendezvous, 
the trappers separated into small parties and spent 
the summer working along the streams in the 
country east of the Wasatch Mountains. 

It was along about the end of October, 1825, 
and the winter was already setting in, when one 
of the small bands that had worked its way to the 
headwaters of the Salt River during the fall hunt, 
fell in with three men who had just arrived from 
St. Louis with a letter for Sublette from General 
Ashley. The three men were James P. Beck- 
wourth, one La Roche, and one Fellow. It would 
appear that during his homeward journey Ashley 
had concluded that he was wealthy enough to 
retire, and it is probable that he had discussed 
with Jedediah Smith some proposition regarding 
the sale of his mountain interests to a new firm 

220 



General Ashley Retires 221 

of which Smith and Sublette should be members. 
It was doubtless with this in view that, shortly- 
after arriving at St. Louis, he had induced Beck- 
wourth and his two companions to carry a mes- 
sage to Sublette far away beyond the Great Di- 
vide. Beckwourth tells us that he received 
$1,000 for the trip; and, considering the great 
risk that so small a party ran, such remuneration 
could hardly be regarded as excessive, though it 
is likely that far less was received. 

Setting forth from St. Louis with two riding 
horses and a pack-mule for each, these three men 
had followed the Missouri River to the mouth of 
the Platte, ascended the latter to the Forks, thence 
proceeding by way of the North Platte and the 
Sweetwater through South Pass to the Green. 
After pushing up the Green to the mouth of Le 
Barge Creek, they had struck across country north- 
westward to the headwaters of the Salt River, 
which empties into the Snake River where the 
latter crosses the eastern boundary of Idaho. 
The trappers whom they met at this point were 
about to start for the rendezvous in Cache Val- 
ley, and Beckwourth decided to accompany them 
to that place, there to await the arrival of Sub- 
lette rather than to search for him in the wilder- 
ness. 

It was late in October when the widely scat- 
tered bands had at last reunited in Cache Valley, 
and Sublette's party was the last to come in. 



22 2 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Upon arriving, Sublette gave orders for the whole 
camp to prepare for the march to the mouth of 
the Weber River, where he had decided to win- 
ter. At this time the Ashley men, including hired 
trappers, free trappers, and those who had de- 
serted Ogden, must have numbered about one hun- 
dred. Most of these had taken Indian wives; 
some had children; and as many horses were re- 
quired to transport the impedimenta of such a 
camp, the procession that trailed out of Cache 
Valley must have been rather impressive. Joseph 
Meek, who became one of Sublette's trappers four 
years later, has left us the following account of 
the manner in which such a party travelled: 

'' When the large camp is on the march, it has 
a leader, generally one of the Booshways,^ who 
rides in advance or at the head of the column. 
Near him is a led mule, chosen for qualities of 
speed and trustworthiness, on which are packed 
two small trunks that balance each other, like 
panniers, and which contain the company's books, 
papers, and articles of agreement with the men. 
Then follow the pack-animals, each one bearing 
three packs — one on each side and one on top — 
so nicely adjusted as not to slip in travelling. 
These are in charge of certain men called camp- 
keepers, who have each three of these to look 
after. The trappers and hunters have two 

1 A corruption of the French word, Bourgeois, meaning trader. 
Sublette was the " Booshway " of the party with which we are 
here concerned. 



General Ashley Retires 223 

horses, or mules, one to ride and one to pack 
their traps. If there are women and children 
In the train, they are all mounted. Where the 
country Is safe, the caravan moves in single file, 
often stretching out for half or three-quarters of 
a mile. At the end of the column rides the ' sec- 
ond man ' or ' Little Booshway,' usually a hired 
officer, whose business It Is to look after the order 
and condition of the whole camp. 

*' On arriving at a suitable spot upon which to 
make the night camp, the leader stops, dismounts 
In the particular space which Is to be devoted to 
himself In Its midst. The others, as they come 
up, form a circle, the ' second man ' bringing up 
the rear to be sure all are there. He then pro- 
ceeds to appoint every man a place In the circle, 
and to examine the horses' backs to see if any 
are sore. The horses are then turned out, under 
guard, to graze; but before darkness comes on, 
they are placed Inside the ring and picketed by a 
stake driven In the earth, or with two feet tied 
together so as to prevent easy or free locomotion. 
The men are divided Into messes, so many trap- 
pers and so many camp-keepers to a mess. The 
business of eating Is not a very elaborate one 
where the sole diet Is meat, either dried or roasted. 
By a certain hour all is quiet in camp, and only 
the guard Is awake. 

" In the morning, at daylight, the ' second man ' 
comes forth from his lodge and cries in French: 



224 ^^^ Splendid Wayfaring 

' leve, levCy leve/ which is the command to rise. 
In about five minutes more he cries: ' Leche lego, 
leche lego,' or ' turn out, turn out ' ; at which com- 
mand all come out from the lodges, and the horses 
are turned loose to feed; but not before a horse- 
man has galloped all around the camp at some 
distance, and discovered everything to be safe in 
the neighborhood. Again, when the horses have 
been sufficiently fed under the eye of a guard, they 
are driven up, the packs replaced, the train 
mounted, and once more it moves off in the order 
before mentioned." ^ 

Thus Ashley's men, with their women, children 
and horses, moved down the Bear River to Salt 
Lake, and along the border of the lake southward 
to the mouth of the Weber, where they established 
themselves in their skin tents for the winter. 

Now that the trapping season was over, the 
men had a comparatively easy time, having little 
to do but to take turns in supplying the camp with 
meat and to indulge themselves in eating, sleep- 
ing, and " swapping yarns "; for we may be sure 
that most of the more menial duties about camp — 
such as cooking and fetching wood and water — 
were willingly performed by the squaws, as being 
well beneath the dignity of their lords. Joseph 
Meek describes certain features of domestic econ- 
omy in these winter camps : 

" When a piece of game is brought in — a deer 

1 Victor. " The River of the West." Chap. I. 






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Original in possession of the Missouri Historical Society 
Last Page of Rogers' Journal, Written at the Camp on the 
Umpqua the Day Before the Massacre in which the Writer Was 
Killed. 



General Ashley Retires 225 

or an antelope or buffalo meat — it is thrown 
down In front of the Booshway's lodge; and the 
' second man ' stands by and cuts it up, or has it 
cut up for him. The first man who chances to 
come along is ordered to stand still and turn his 
back to the pile of game, while the Little Boosh- 
way lays hold of a piece that has been cut off and 
asks in a loud voice: ' Who will have this? ' and 
the man, answering for him, says: * The Boosh- 
way,' or perhaps ' number six ' or * number 
twenty' — meaning certain messes; and the num- 
ber is called to come and take the meat. In this 
blind way the meat is portioned out, the Booshway 
faring no better than his men." ^ 

Not long after winter quarters had been es- 
tablished, so we are told by Beckwourth who was 
there, a party of Bannock Indians swooped down 
upon the camp one stormy night and drove away 
eighty of the white men's horses. Here was work 
that could not be allotted to the squaws, and such 
work as the trappers seemed rather to enjoy. 
Fifty men immediately volunteered to pursue the 
Bannocks; and it is safe to guess that most of 
those who had been on Green River in the spring 
of 1824 and had shared in the attack on the Snake 
village, were of this band which, like the former 
one, was led by Fitzpatrick. 

Early next morning the horse-hunters set out 
afoot. The storm had died in the night; and, as 

1 Victor, op. cit. Chap. I. 



2 26 The Splendid Wayfaring 

much snow had fallen, the stolen herd had left a 
trail that was easily followed. After trudging 
five days in a northerly direction, the trappers 
came at last in sight of the Bannock village. 
Fitzpatrick now divided his party into two bands, 
one of which was led by himself, the other by the 
young daredevil, James Bridger, who was to drive 
away the Bannock horses while Fitzpatrick and 
his men charged the Indians, numbering about 
three hundred ! It was surely an audacious plan, 
but It seems to have worked perfectly. The 
whole Bannock herd was driven away, though 
many of the horses were later recovered by the 
Indians. " We succeeded in getting off with the 
number of our own missing horses and forty head 
besides," says Beckwourth, who shared In the en- 
terprise. " In the engagement six of the enemy 
were killed and scalped, while not one of our 
party received a scratch. The horses we captured 
were very fine ones, and our return to camp was 
greeted with the liveliest demonstrations." 

When the horse-hunters reached winter quar- 
ters they found there an encampment of Snake 
Indians, numbering over a thousand. " These," 
so Beckwourth tells us, " had entirely surrounded 
us with their lodges, adding very materially to 
our population. They were perfectly friendly, 
and we apprehended no danger from them. It 
appears that this was their usual resort for spend- 
ing the winter." 



General Ashley Retires 227 

During the absence of Fitzpatrick's party, Sub- 
lette, owing, doubtless, to the letter received from 
Ashley, had decided that his business Interests 
made necessary his presence in St. Louis; and he 
had started with but one companion. Black Harris, 
on the trail that led back to the States — one 
thousand five hundred miles away across a bliz- 
zard swept prairie-wilderness! 

The wintering party, " all strong and healthy 
as bears," as we are assured, now settled down to 
a comfortable and neighborly existence In com- 
pany with their Snake friends, the presence of 
whom made unlikely any further attack by ma- 
rauding bands of horse-thieves. So passed the 
winter of 1825-26. 

Early in the spring of 1826 four men, whose 
names are not recorded, set out In small bullboats 
from the camp at the mouth of the Weber River 
to skirt the shore of the Great Salt Lake. Their 
purpose was to locate beaver streams and to find 
the place whence the Buenaventura Issued, flowing 
westward to the ocean. After three weeks these 
men, having circumnavigated the lake, returned to 
camp with a tale of unprofitable labors. They 
had found neither beaver nor the Buenaventura, 
and they had suffered much with thirst; for most 
of the streams that entered the lake were saline at 
that early season before the flood waters of the 
melting snow had washed them clean. 

During the absence of the exploring party, the 



2 28 The Splendid Wayfaring 

main body had been preparing to leave winter 
quarters and begin the spring hunt. Many of the 
skins, which had been used for lodges and were 
therefore thoroughly cured by the smoke of the 
winter fires, were cut up and made into moccasins 
for the party. Smoked skins do not shrink with 
wetting as raw skins do. " This is an important 
quality in a moccasin,'^ so Joseph Meek tells us, 
" as a trapper is almost constantly in the water 
during the trapping season; and should not his 
moccasins be smoked they will close upon his feet, 
in drying, like a vice. Sometimes after trapping 
all day, the tired and soaked trapper lies down in 
his blankets at night, still wet. By and by he is 
wakened by the pinching of his moccasins and is 
obliged to rise and seek the water again to relieve 
himself of the pain. For the same reason, when 
the spring comes, the trapper is forced to cut off 
the lower half of his buckskin breeches, and piece 
them down with blanket leggings, which he wears 
all through the trapping season." ^ 

The whole body of trappers and Indians now 
broke camp and moved together up Bear River to 
Cache Valley, where forty five packs of beaver, 
collected during the previous fall, were cached. 
During this operation, two French Canadian trap- 
pers were killed by the caving in of a clay bank in 
which they were digging; and Beckwourth, with 
his usual loquacity, tells us that he fell heir to the 

1 Victor, op. cit. 



General Ashley Retires 229 

widow of one of these unfortunates. '' She was 
of light complexion," says he, " smart, trim, and 
active, and never tired in her efforts to please me, 
seeming to think that she belonged to me for the 
remainder of her life. I had never had a servant 
before, and I found her of great service to me in 
keeping my clothes in repair, making my bed, and 
taking care of my weapons." 

From Cache Valley, the trappers started on the 
spring hunt, pushing over to the headwaters of the 
Port Neuf and down that stream to its junction 
with the Snake River, finding plenty of beaver all 
the way. At this point they seem to have had 
a brisk encounter with a large band of Blackfeet, 
as a result of which they lost three horses. How- 
ever, they took some scalps by way of partial 
remuneration ! They then turned back, ascend- 
ing the Port Neuf to its headwaters, from whence 
they crossed over to the Bear River, continuing 
the hunt along that stream and its tributaries 
until they reached the mouth of Sage Creek. 
There they met Black Harris and one Porteleuse, 
who had just arrived from the States. These 
brought the news that Ashley, Smith, and Sub- 
lette were but a short distance away, bound for 
Salt Lake with fifty men and a pack-train of one 
hundred horses and mules, having begun the jour- 
ney from St. Louis early in March. 

Upon receiving this news, the trappers hastened 
back to Salt Lake, being joined on the way by the 



230 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Snake Indians who had spent the previous winter 
with them. Shortly after they reached the ap- 
pointed place of rendezvous on Salt Lake, Ash- 
ley's party came In with the pack-train heavily 
laden with merchandise, and the business of the 
rendezvous began. 

" It may well be supposed," so Beckwourth re- 
marks, " that the arrival of such a vast amount 
of luxuries from the East did not pass off without 
a general celebration. Mirth, songs, dancing, 
shouting, trading, running, jumping, racing, tar- 
get-shooting, yarns, frolic, with all sorts of ex- 
travagances that white men or Indians could In- 
vent, were freely Indulged In. The unpacking 
of the medicine water (alcohol) contributed not 
a little to the heightening of our festivities." 

However, the festivities were rudely Interrupted 
during the second day, when a body of Blackfeet, 
prowling In the vicinity, surprised and killed five 
of the Snake Indians who were gathering roots at 
some distance from the camp. Whereupon the 
Snake chief went to Sublette and said: "Cut 
Face, three of my warriors and two women have 
just been killed by the Blackfeet. You say that 
your warriors can fight — that they are great 
braves. Now let me see them fight, that I may 
know your words are true." 

Sublette replied: "You shall see them fight, 
and then you will know that they are all braves — 
that I have no cowards among my men, and that 



General Ashley Retires 231 

they are all ready to die for their Snake friends." 
Beckwourth, whom we have been quoting, tells 
us that the ensuing battle continued for six hours, 
after which Sublette's men, having become very 
hungry as a result of their violent exercise, re- 
tired to their camp, requesting that the Snakes 
remain on the field and finish the job. But the 
Snakes, it seems, had also developed considerable 
appetites by this time, and, concluding that under 
the circumstances they would rather eat than fight, 
they followed their allies to the feast. So the 
battle ended pleasantly enough. 

During the rendezvous General Ashley com- 
pleted arrangements with Jedediah Smith, David 
E. Jackson, and William L. Sublette, whereby he 
transferred his interests in the mountains to the 
firm of Smith, Jackson and Sublette, agreeing to 
furnish the new company with goods from the 
States and to dispose of its furs on a commission 
basis. The articles of agreement were drawn 
up and signed on July 26th, 1826, "near the 
Grand Lake west of the Rocky Mountains." 

Before leaving the country for the last time, 
so Beckwourth informs us, the General delivered 
the following farewell address: " Mountaineers 
and friends ! When I first came to the moun- 
tains, I came a poor man. You, by your inde- 
fatigable exertions, toils, and privations, have pro- 
cured me an independent fortune. With ordinary 
prudence in the management of what I have ac- 



232 The Splendid Wayfaring 

cumulated, I shall never want for anything. For 
this, my friends, I feel myself under great obliga- 
tions to you. Many of you have served with me 
personally, and I shall always be proud to testify 
to the fidelity with which you have stood by me 
through all danger, and the friendly and brotherly 
manner which you have ever, one and all, evinced 
toward me. For these faithful and devoted serv- 
ices I wish you to accept my thanks; the gratitude 
I express to you springs from my heart, and will 
ever retain a lively hold on my feelings. My 
friends! I am now about to leave you to take 
up my abode in St. Louis. Whenever any of you 
return thither, your first duty must be to call at 
my house, to talk over the scenes of peril we have 
encountered, and partake of the best cheer my 
table can afford. I now wash my hands of the 
toils of the Rocky Mountains. Farewell, moun- 
taineers and friends ! May God bless you all ! " ^ 

1 While quoting James P. Beckwourth rather freely in the 
foregoing pages, I have not been unaware of the fact that some 
of our earlier historians of the West have been inclined to 
regard him as unreliable. However that may be, he is cer- 
tainly important for his intimate descriptions of well authenti- 
cated incidents. It is as a describer of such incidents that I 
have trusted him. — Author. 



XIX 

THE FIRST AMERICANS OVERLAND TO CALIFORNIA ^ 

IMMEDIATELY upon taking over Ashley's 
interests in the mountains, Smith, Jackson and 
Sublette began to make plans for extending the 
business. The country drained by the Green, the 
Bear, the Weber, and the upper Snake rivers, was 
still rich in beaver; but yonder between the Great 
Salt Lake and the setting sun lay a land unknown. 
What incalculable wealth of fur might be waiting 
there in a trapper's paradise of pleasant valleys! 
And somewhere through that country did not the 
mighty Buenaventura River flow westward to 
the Pacific? Here was stuff enough for the fash- 
ioning of big dreams ! Beyond that unknown 
land was California. Might it not be possible to 
transport furs to some Spanish port, thence to be 
sent around the Horn by the New England trad- 
ing ships that were constantly on the coast in 
those years? 

It will be remembered that in the late fall of 
1824 Jedediah Smith had accompanied Ross to 
Flathead House, the Hudson Bay Company's post 

1 This chapter is based on Smith's letter to General Clark 
(Kansas Hist. Soc. MSS.) and the Journals of Harrison G. 
Rogers (Missouri Hist. Soc. MSS.) ; both presented in full by- 
Dale, the latter for the first time. 

233 



234 The Splendid Wayfaring 

on Clark's Fork of the Columbia east of the Bitter 
Root Mountains. While there he had learned 
much regarding the successful operations of the 
British traders, and he could not have failed to 
appreciate the immense advantage they enjoyed 
with their access to the sea by way of the Colum- 
bia. It was natural that the young Americans 
should covet a like advantage, especially as the 
memory of Astor's great enterprise, that had 
failed but twelve years before, was fresh in their 
minds and still bore the glamour of high adventure. 

Might not the Buenaventura prove to be a 
second Columbia? 

It was decided that an exploring party should 
be sent through the unknown country to the sea. 
Three years had passed since Jedediah Smith, who 
was now just twenty eight years old, had joined 
Ashley's band at St. Louis, and from the begin- 
ning he had been a man of mark. His conduct in 
the first battle with the Rees and his perilous 
journey afterward to Major Henry at the mouth 
of the Yellowstone, had distinguished him for ex- 
traordinary courage; and since that time he had 
demonstrated shrewdness in business matters, 
commonsense, and a gift for leadership. For 
these reasons, and because, being better educated 
than either of his comrades, he was the best fitted 
to deal with the Spanish authorities on the coast, 
it was decided that he should lead the exploring 
party. 



First Americans Overland to California 235 

We can fancy with what eagerness he must 
have accepted this task; for had he not pored over 
that vast triangular white space on the maps of 
the period and dreamed of penetrating its mys- 
tery? Now the dream was coming true! How- 
ever, judging by the direction he took on his out- 
ward journey, it would seem that his first concern 
was with finding a practicable route to California. 

On the 22nd of August, 1826, Smith started 
southward from the place of rendezvous on Great 
Salt Lake with fifteen men, fifty horses, and a 
stock of merchandise, leaving his partners, Jack- 
son and Sublette, with the remainder of the band 
to continue operations in the fur country already 
explored, and agreeing to meet them, if possible, 
at the southern end of Bear Lake during the sum- 
mer of 1827. Those who accompanied Smith are 
worthy of remembrance, for they were the first 
Americans to reach California by land, the van- 
guard of the great invasion that was to be in full 
swing a quarter of a century later. Their names 
are as follows: Harrison G. Rogers, Silas Go- 
bel, Arthur Black, John Gaiter, Robert Evans, 
Manuel Lazarus, John Hanna, John Wilson, Mar- 
tin McCoy, Daniel Ferguson, Peter Ranne (a 
negro), Abraham LaPlant, James Read, John 
Reubasco, and one Robiseau. 

Following the valley of the Jordan River from 
Great Salt Lake, Smith's party skirted the east- 
ern shore of Utah Lake. Having reached the 



236 The Splendid Wayfaring 

point where the lake shore bears westward, they 
struck out across the barren country to the south- 
west, and early in September came upon the 
Sevier River, flowing in a northerly direction. 
Smith called this Ashley's River, and assumed that 
it emptied into Utah Lake — a natural assump- 
tion, considering the direction of the stream and 
the fact that he reached it at a considerable dis- 
tance south of the abrupt bend from which it flows 
southwestwardly into Sevier Lake. Just fifty 
years before, the two Franciscan padres, Domin- 
guez and Escalante, in their misguided search for 
a direct route from Santa Fe to Monterey, had 
passed that way with a party of eight en route 
to Utah Lake. Since then no white man had pen- 
etrated that solitude until now. 

Smith's band pushed on southward up the val- 
ley of the Sevier. The last signs of buffalo had 
been seen before leaving Utah Lake, but antelope 
and mountain sheep were still to be found in small 
numbers, and " black-tailed hares " were abun- 
dant, so that the men as yet did not suffer want. 
While ascending this stream, they came upon a 
small village of Sanpet Indians, called Sanpatch 
by Smith. The fact that these wore " rabbit skin 
robes " is sufl^cient indication that big game was 
very scarce in that region. Few in numbers and 
poverty-stricken, it is not surprising that this tribe 
was " friendly disposed " toward the white men, 
who must have seemed immensely rich and pow- 



First Americans Overland to California 237 

erful with their buckskin clothes, their rifles, and 
their pack-animals laden with merchandise. 

From the headwaters of the Sevier, the ex- 
plorers crossed the divide southward and, near the 
end of September, reached the headwaters of the 
Virgin (*' of a muddy cast and a little brackish ") , 
which Smith called " Adams' River in compliment 
to our President." With mountains to their left 
and a sandy waste, broken by occasional rocky 
hills, on their right, they descended the Virgin 
through a country where even jackrabblts were 
scarce. They now began to know hunger, and 
their horses grew lean and weak for want of grass. 
Nor did their meeting with the Paiute Indians 
bring them much relief. These, like the Sanpets 
on the Sevier, wore rabbit skin robes and were 
poor, though we are told that they '' raised some 
little corn and pumpkins." 

After ten days of marching down the Virgin, 
sa Smith tells us, he discovered a large cave on 
the west side of the river, " the entrance of which 
is about ten or fifteen feet high and five or six 
feet in width," the roof, sides, and floor being 
solid rock salt. Two days farther down stream, 
through a region where little grew but cacti and 
stunted shrubs, they reached the point where the 
Virgin empties into the Colorado. Crossing the 
Colorado, which Smith calls the Seedskeeder (Sis- 
kadee), thus Identifying it with Green River, the 
band travelled down the valley four days, finding 



238 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the country " remarkably barren, rocky, and moun- 
tainous." We are not told how they managed 
to exist during this time, but it is reasonable to 
assume that they lived on horse meat. 

At length they came upon the Mohave Indians 
(whom Smith calls the Ammuchabas), dwelling 
in a place where the valley, opening out to a width 
of from five to fifteen miles, was well timbered 
and fertile. The Mohaves were well supplied 
with corn, beans, pumpkins, watermelons, and 
wheat. 

" I was now nearly destitute of horses," says 
Smith, " and had learned what it was to do with- 
out food. I therefore remained there fifteen days 
and recruited my men, and I was enabled also to 
exchange my horses and purchase a few more of 
a few runaway Indians who stole some from the 
Spaniards. I here got information of the Span- 
ish countries (the Californias) , obtained two 
good guides, and recrossed the Seedskeeder which 
I afterwards found emptied into the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia by the name of the Collarado." 

Having crossed the Colorado at the Needles 
during the first week of November, Smith and his 
band struck out across the desert. " I travelled 
a west course fifteen days," he says, " over a coun- 
try of complete barrens, generally travelling from 
morning until night without water. I crossed a 
salt plain about twenty miles long and eight wide; 
on the surface was a crust of beautiful white salt, 



First Americans Overland to California 239 

quite thin. Under this surface there Is a layer 
of salt from a half to one and one-half inches in 
depth; between this and the upper layer there is 
about four inches of yellowish sand." 

Anyone who has crossed the Mohave Desert on 
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad, the 
route of which is approximately that followed by 
Smith, can easily imagine what hardships were suf- 
fered by this party. They' had started from 
Great Salt Lake with fifty horses; and though 
they had purchased a number while resting among 
the Mohave Indians, they had but eighteen when 
they reached the Spanish settlements of Califor- 
nia. Some had doubtless been eaten, but most 
had died for want of pasturage and water. 

On Sunday evening, November 26th, 1826, 
Smith's party encamped at a point about eighteen 
miles east of San Gabriel Mission situated near 
the Pueblo of Los Angeles. The next morning, 
so says Harrison G. Rogers in his journal, '' We 
got ready as early as possible and started a west 
course and travelled fourteen miles and encamped 
for the day. We passed innumerable herds of 
cattle, horses, and some hundreds of sheep. We 
passed four or five Indian lodges, that their Indians 
act as herdsmen. There came an old Indian to us 
that speaks good Spanish, and took us with him 
to his mansion, which consisted of two rows of 
large and lengthy buildings, that remind me of the 
British Barracks. So soon as we encamped, there 



240 The Splendid Wayfaring 

was plenty prepared to eat, a fine young cow 
killed, and a plenty of corn meal given us. Pretty 
soon after, the two commandants of the mission- 
ary establishment (San Gabriel) came to us and 
had the appearance of gentlemen. Mr. Smith 
went with them to the Mansion (Mission) and I 
stayed with the company. There was great feast- 
ing among the men as they were pretty hungry, 
not having any good meat for some time." 

The next day, so Rogers continues, " Mr. Smith 
wrote me that he was received as a gentleman and 
treated as such, and that he wished me to go back 
and look for a pistol that was lost, and send the 
company on to the missionary establishment. I 
complied with his request, went back, and found 
the pistol, and arrived late in the evening. Was 
received very politely, and showed into a room 
and my arms taken from me. About ten o'clock 
at night supper was served, and Mr. Smith and 
myself sent for. I was introduced to the two 
priests over a glass of good old whisky and found 
them to be very jovial friendly gentlemen. The 
supper consisted of a number of different dishes, 
served different from any table I ever saw. 
Plenty of good wine during supper. Before the 
cloth was removed cigars were Introduced." 

It was a strange society Into which these Amer- 
ican trappers had come — almost like men from 
another planet. Their trail from St. Louis up 
the Missouri, the Platte and the Sweetwater, 



M^ ^ 















yu^-ni^ftfA. . 



y^' 



'^^£/^p 



y^ 



Original in possession of South Dakota Historical Society 
Letter from Hugh Glass Relative to Death of Gardner 



First Americans Overland to California 241 

through South Pass to Salt Lake by way of the 
Bear River, past Utah Lake, up the Sevier, down 
the Virgin and Colorado, and westward across the 
Mohave Desert, had led them far as to space, 
but farther as to time; for they had actually jour- 
neyed backward through the Past of the Race, to 
a pastoral, theocratic age ! 

At this point, a brief sketch of early California 
history may not come amiss. In 1543, Juan Cab- 
rillo, a Spanish navigator, had explored the south- 
ern coast of Upper California, then, and for many 
years thereafter, supposed to be an island or an 
archipelago with an extension of the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia on the east and the mythical Strait of 
Anian (an arm of Hudson Bay!) on the north. 
In the 8o's and 90's of the same century, two 
Spanish galleons, trading with the Philippines 
from the west coast of Mexico, had touched upon 
the California shore; and in 1602 Sebastian Vis- 
caino had discovered the bays of San Diego and 
Monterey. For over a century and a half there- 
after, the country, though regarded as belonging 
to the Spanish crown, was unvisited, and remained 
little more than a name associated with the 
" Northern Mystery." Now and then a galleon, 
homeward bound from the Philippines, sighted its 
lonely headlands afar and sailed on. 

In the middle of the i8th century the Russians 
began the exploration of Alaska, and Spain, fear- 
ing the new influence growing up in the far North, 



242 The Splendid tVayfaring 

alarmed at the Increasing frequency with which 
the EngHsh privateers were appearing In the Pa- 
cific, and having long felt the need of a refitting 
port for her Manila galleons, was aroused to a 
new Interest In the land that she had so long neg- 
lected, and decided to occupy it. 

At this time, however, the Spanish Govern- 
ment was too poor to undertake the conquest of 
the vast domain by force of arms; and so the task 
was delegated to the Franciscan Order of mis- 
sionary friars. I. B. RIchman remarks upon 
*' the singular efficacy of the Cross in the subjuga- 
tion of men," ^ a fact which the Spanish religious 
orders had already demonstrated in the Philippine 
Islands, Paraguay, and Lower California. The 
leader of the great movement which now began 
was the famous Father Junipero Serra. In 1768 
he accompanied the " sacred expedition " under 
Jose de Galvez, the purpose of which was to estab- 
lish missions at certain strategic points along the 
California coast. The first, San Diego de Alcala, 
was founded In July, 1769; the second, San Carlos 
Borromeo, near the present Monterey, In 1770; 
the third San Antonio de Padua, on the San An- 
tonio River, in July, 1771; and San Gabriel Arc- 
angel, the fourth, in September of the same year. 
From that time on, the movement had grown rap- 
idly. At the time of Jedediah Smith's arrival, 
there were twenty three thriving missions in Up- 

1 " California Under Spain and Mexico." 



First Americans Overland to California 243 

per California, reaching from the Bay of San 
Francisco to San Diego Bay. Of these, San 
Gabriel was one of the most important, owing to 
the fertility of the region and to the fact that 
there the overland route from the Colorado River 
met the trail from Lower California. 

In spite of the undeniably pious intentions of 
the padres, these missions had grown to be some- 
thing more than religious institutions, concerned 
with the salvation of the Indian soul. They 
were commercial concerns, under theocratic con- 
trol and flourishing by virtue of a practically un- 
limited supply of slave labor. The Indian neo- 
phytes tended the flocks and herds, spun wool, 
tanned hides, made tallow and soap, raised wheat, 
hemp, grapes, olives, oranges, and manufactured 
various articles in leather, wood, and iron. A 
profitable trade in hides and tallow had, for many 
years, been carried on with the Boston ships that 
came around the Horn — a voyage that often re- 
quired as much as six months to make. R. H. 
Dana, in " Two Years Before the Mast," has left 
us a vivid account of that industry as it was car- 
ried on along the coast during the period with 
which we are concerned. 

Four years before Smith's arrival, the Province 
of Upper California had given allegiance to Mex- 
ico, which had broken away from Spain in 181 1. 

Now the cordial reception of the first overland 
Americans by the benevolent and lovable padres 



244 ^^^ Splendid Wayfaring 

of San Gabriel Mission proved to be somewhat 
misleading; for there was another power in the 
country with which the party was obliged to 
reckon — the civil authorities. As we have seen, 
the first settlements in California had been 
founded as the result of suspicion and fear — sus- 
picion of the Russians, fear of the British bucca- 
neers of the type of Hawkins and Drake. Since 
the ship Otter of Boston had dropped anchor in 
the Bay of Monterey just thirty years before, the 
Americans had come to be regarded with some 
dread; and not without cause, as history has long 
since made plain, and as the conduct of the Bos- 
ton smugglers and traders along the coast had 
then already demonstrated. We Americans are 
a virile, driving breed; and we must have seemed 
rather grasping and godless to the ease-loving 
Spaniards of the Coast in those days. Why had 
these barbaric trappers from the central wilds of 
the continent entered California? Was a new 
race of Goths looking lustfully upon a new Italy? 
Immediately upon arriving at San Gabriel, 
Smith was informed that he could not proceed 
without a passport from the civil authorities, and 
accordingly he wrote a letter to the Governor of 
the Province, Jose Maria de Echeandia, whose of- 
ficial residence was then at San Diego, giving rea- 
sons for his presence in the country and asking 
permission to continue his journey northward. 
Smith's reasons seem to have been rather more 



First Americans Overland to California 245 

strategic than factual, and considering those with 
whom he had to deal, he was doubtless justified in 
making them so. The Governor was given to un- 
derstand that the party had been " compelled for 
want of provisions and water " to enter Califor- 
nia. Though an answer was expected within a 
few days, more than a month was to elapse before 
satisfactory arrangements could be made with 
Echeandia ; and, knowing this, we may as well pass 
the time among the luxury-loving padres with 
Harrison G. Rogers. Here follow extracts from 
his diary: 

" November 29th. Still at the mansion (Mis- 
sion). We were sent for about sunrise to drink 
a cup of tea, and eat some bread and cheese. 
They all appear friendly and treat us well. Al- 
though they are Catholics by profession, they al- 
low us the liberty of conscience, and treat us as 
they de their own countrymen and brethren. 

" About eleven o'clock dinner was ready, and 
the priest came after us to go and dine. We were 
invited into the office and invited to take a glass 
of gin and water and eat some bread and cheese. 
Directly after, we were seated at dinner, and 
everything went on In style, both the priests being 
pretty merry, the clerk and one other gentleman 
who speaks some English. They all appear to 
be gentlemen of the first class, both in manners 
and habits. The Mission consists of four rows 
of houses forming a complete square, where there 



246 The Splendid Wayfaring 

are all kinds of mechanics at work. The church 
faces the east, and the guard house, the west. 
The north and south line comprises the work 
shops. They have large vineyards, apple and 
peach orchards, and some orange and some fig 
trees. They manufacture blankets and sundry 
other articles. They distil whisky and grind their 
own grain, having a water mill of a tolerable qual- 
ity. They have upwards of one thousand persons 
employed, men, women, and children, Indians of 
various nations. The situation is very handsome, 
pretty streams of water running through from all 
quarters, some thousands of acres of fertile land, 
as level as a die in view, and a part under cultiva- 
tion, surrounded on the north with a high moun- 
tain, handsomely timbered with pine and cedar, 
and on the south with low mountains covered with 
grass. Cattle — this Mission has upwards of 
thirty thousand head of cattle, and horses, sheep, 
hogs, etc. in proportion. . . . They slaughter at 
this place from two to three thousand head of cat- 
tle at a time. The Mission lives on the profits. 

" November 30th. There was a wedding in 
this place today, and Mr. Smith and myself in- 
vited. The bell was rung a little before sunrise, 
and the morning service performed. Then the 
music commenced serenading, the soldiers firing, 
etc. About seven o'clock tea and bread served, 
and about eleven, dinner and music. The cere- 
mony and dinner were held at the priest's. They 



First Americans Overland to California 247 

had an elegant dinner, consisting of a number of 
dishes, boiled and roast meat and fowl, wine and 
brandy, grapes brought as a dessert. Mr. 
Smith and myself acted quite independent, not 
understanding their language, nor they ours. 
We endeavored to apologize, being very dirty and 
not in a situation to shift our clothing; but no ex- 
cuse would be taken. They treat us as gentle- 
men in every sense of the word; and although our 
apparel is so indifferent, and we not being in cir- 
cumstances at this time to help ourselves, being 
about eight hundred miles on a direct line from 
the place of our deposit. . . . Our two Indian 
guides were imprisoned in the guard house the sec- 
ond day after we arrived at the missionary estab- 
lishment, and remain confined as yet. 

" December ist, 1826. We still remain at the 
Mission of San Gabriel; things going on as usual; 
all friendship and peace. Mr. Smith set his black- 
smiths, James Reed and Silas Gobel, to work in 
the blacksmith shop to make a bear trap for the 
priest, agreeable to promise yesterday. Mr. 
Smith and the interpreter went in the evening to 
the next Mission, called St. Pedro (on San Pedro 
Bay), a Spanish gentleman from the Mission hav- 
ing sent his servant with horses for them. . . . 
Mr. Smith informed me this morning that he had 
to give Reed a little flogging yesterday evening on 
account of some impertinence. He appeared 
more complaisant this morning than usual. 



248 The Splendid Wayfaring 

" December 2nd. . . . Mr. Smith has not re- 
turned from the Mission as yet. This province is 
called the Province of New California. This mis- 
sion ships annually from twenty to twenty five 
thousand dollars worth of hides and tallow, and 
about twenty thousand dollars worth of soap. . . . 
The Indians appear to be much altered from the 
wild Indians in the mountains that we have passed. 
They are kept in great fear. For the least of- 
fence they are corrected. They are complete 
slaves in every sense of the word. . . . Mr. 
Smith and La Plant returned late in the evening, 
and represent their treatment to be good at the 
other Mission. Mr. Smith tells me that Mr. 
Francisco, the Spanish gentleman that he went to 
visit, promises him as many horses and mules as 
he wants. 

"December 4th. Still at San Gabriel; things 
much as usual. The priest presented Mr. Smith 
with two pieces of shirting containing sixty four 
yards, for to make the men shirts, all being nearly 
naked. 

" December 7th. No answer as yet from the 
Governor of the Province. Mr. Smith and all 
hands getting impatient. . . . 

" December 8th. Mr. Smith was sent for, to 
go to San Diego to see the Governor. Captain 
Cunningham, commanding the ship Courier, now 
lying in port at San Diego, arrived here late this 
evening. The Captain is a Bostonian and has 



First Americans Overland to California 249 

been trading on the coast for hides and tallow 
since June last. He informs me that he is rather 
under the impression that he shall be obliged to re- 
main until some time in the succeeding summer, 
in consequence of so much opposition, as there are 
a number of vessels on the coast trading for the 
same articles. . . . Mr. Martinas tells me that 
there are between sixteen and seventeen thousand 
natives that are converted to the Catholic faith 
a;nd under the control of the different missions. 
The white population he estimates at six thousand, 
making twenty two or twenty three thousand souls 
in the Province of New California. 

" December 9th. Mr. Smith and one of the 
men, in company with Captain Cunningham, left 
San Gabriel this morning for San Diego, the Gov- 
ernor's place of residence. . . . 

" December loth, Sunday. There were five 
Indians brought to the Mission and sentenced to 
be whipped for not going to work when ordered. 
Each received from twelve to fourteen lashes. 
They were all old men, say from fifty to sixty 
years, the commandant standing by with his sword 
to see that the Indian who flogged them did his 
duty. . . . They keep at this place four small 
field pieces, two six-pounders and two two-pound- 
ers, to protect them from the Indians in case they 
should rebel. 

" December 13th. I walked through the work- 
shops. I saw some Indians blacksmithing, some 



250 The Splendid Wayfaring 

carpentering, others making the woodwork of 
plows, others employed in making spinning wheels 
for the squaws to spin on. There are upwards of 
sixty women employed in spinning yarn and weav- 
ing. . . . Our blacksmiths have been employed 
for several days making horse shoes and nails for 
our own use when we leave here. 

" December 14th. I was asked by the priest to 
let our blacksmiths make a large trap for him to 
set in his orange garden to catch the Indians when 
they come up at night to rob his orchard. 

"December i8th. I received a letter from 
Mr. Smith informing me that he was rather un- 
der the impression that he would be detained for 
some time yet, as the general did not like to take 
the responsibility on himself to let us pass, until 
he received instructions from the general in Mex- 
ico. . . . Our men have been employed in fitting 
out a cargo of hides, tallow and soap for a Mr. 
Henry Edwards. He is what they call here a 
Mexican trader. 

" December 19th. This mission, If properly 
managed, would be equal to a mine of silver or 
gold. Their farms are extensive. They raise 
from three thousand to four thousand bushels of 
wheat annually, and sell to shippers for three dol- 
lars per bushel. The annual income, situated as 
it is and managed so badly by the Indians, is 
worth. In hides, tallow, soap, wine, brandy, wheat, 
and corn, from fifty five to sixty thousand dollars. 



First Americans Ovei'land to California 251 

" December 20th. I expect an answer from 
Mr. Smith in six or eight days if he does not get 
permission to pass on. My situation is a very 
dehcate one, as I have to be among the grandees 
of the country every day. ... I make a very 
grotesque appearance when seated at table 
amongst the dandies with their ruffles, silks, and 
broad clothes. . . . 

*' January 6th, 1 827. This being what is called 
Epiphany, or Old Christmas Day. . . . Church 
held early as usual, men, women, and children at- 
tend. After church the ceremonies as on Sun- 
days. Wine issued abundantly to both Span- 
iards and Indians, music played by the Indian 
band. After the issue of the morning, our men, 
in company with some Spaniards, went and fired a 
salute, and the old Padre gave them wine, bread, 
and meat as a treat. Some of the men got drunk 
and two of them, James Reed and Daniel Fergu- 
son, commenced fighting, and some of the Span- 
iards interfered and struck one of our men by the 
name of Black, which came very near terminating 
with bad consequences. . . . Our blacksmith, 
James Reed, came very abruptly into the priest's 
dining room while at dinner, and asked for brandy. 
The priest ordered a plate of victuals to be handed 
to him. He ate a few mouthfuls, and set the 
plate on the table, and then took up the decanter 
of wine and drank without invitation, and came 
very near breaking the glass when he set it down. 



252 The Splendid Wayfaring 

The Padre, seeing he was In a state of inebriety, 
refrained from saying anything. . . . 

*' Monday, January 8th. Last night there was 
a great fandango or dance among the Spaniards. 
They kept it up till nearly daylight. . . . 

" Wednesday, January loth. About noon Mr. 
Smith, Captain Cunningham, Mr. Shaw, and 
Thomas Dodge came to the Mission from the 
ship Courier, and I was much rejoiced to see them, 
as I have been waiting with anxiety to see 
him. . . ." 

So runs a portion of the diary of Harrison G. 
Rogers — a Western Pepys. 

After weeks of trying negotiations with the 
suspicious and procrastinating authorities, Smith, 
with the aid of Captain Cunningham and several 
other New England seamen then on the coast, 
managed to get permission to proceed on his way. 
From San Diego he sailed to the port of San 
Pedro on board the Courier with Captain Cun- 
ningham; and by the middle of January, 1827, we 
find him at the Pueblo of Los Angeles engaged In 
buying horses for his journey. 

On the 1 6th of January Smith returned to the 
Mission from the Pueblo with the horses he had 
purchased there. During the following day prep- 
arations were made for resuming the journey, and 
old Father Sanchez, who had already given much 
to the visitors, outdid himself In generosity. 
When the band was ready to start, Daniel Fer- 



First Americans Overland to California 253 

guson, who was evidently well pleased with South- 
ern California and had no desire to experience any 
further hardships in the wilderness, could not be 
found. John Wilson also remained at San Ga- 
briel, probably by arrangement with Smith. 

On the 1 8th of January, 1827, the party, now 
consisting of fourteen men, including Smith, set 
out northwestward with sixty eight horses which, 
being for the most part unbroken, soon became un- 
manageable and ran " eight or ten miles " with the 
packs before they could be stopped. Camp was 
made that night at the Indian farmhouse where 
the party had passed the night of November 27th, 
1826, and Smith and Rogers returned to the Mis- 
sion for a farewell supper with the friendly 
padres. 

Travelling in a northeasterly direction for the 
next two days, they made camp within four miles 
of San Bernardino, " where," says Rogers, *' we 
have an order from the Governor and our old 
Father Joseph Sanchez for all the supplies we 
stand in need of." Here some days were spent 
in purchasing provisions, drying meat, making 
pack-saddles, breaking horses, and in rounding up 
the troublesome herd which broke away several 
times. 

Thence pushing on in a northwesterly direction 
up the great central valley for a distance of about 
three hundred miles, in early spring the party 
reached a river which Smith called the Wim- 



254 ^^^ Splendid Wayfaring 

mulche, after a tribe of Indians found there. 
Authorities differ as to the identity of this stream, 
Chittenden ^ believing it to be the Merced, and 
Richman,- the Mokelumnes; but Dale ^ gives what 
seem to be conclusive arguments in favor of the 
Stanislaus. 

Smith, eager to reach the place of rendezvous 
agreed upon with Jackson and Sublette, now un- 
dertook to cross the Sierras. His chosen route, 
which is not definitely known, probably ran 
twenty five or thirty miles north of the Yosemite 
Valley. " I found the snow so deep on Mount 
Joseph," he wrote to General Clark, " that I 
could not cross my horses, five of which starved to 
death. I was compelled, therefore, to return to 
the valley which I had left, and there, leaving my 
party, I started with two men, seven horses and 
two mules and provisions for ourselves, and 
started on the 20th of May, and succeeded in 
crossing it in eight days, having lost only two 
horses and one mule. I found the snow on the 
top of this mountain from four to eight feet deep, 
but it was so consolidated by the heat of the sun 
that my horses only sunk from half a foot to one 
foot deep." 

One of the men who accompanied Smith is 
known to have been the blacksmith, Silas Gobel. 

1 " History of the American Fur Trade." Page 284 and Map. 

2 " California Under Spain and Mexico." Map of the South- 
west. 

3 " Ashley-Smith Explorations." Page 192. 



First Americans Overland to California 255 

His other companion is nowhere named as such. 
However, by collating the lists of those who are 
known to have been, or must have been, in the 
parties of 1826, 1827, and 1828, it appears that 
Smith's other companion could have been no 
other than Robiseau. 

" After travelling twenty days from the east 
side of Mount Joseph," continues Smith's letter, 
'' I struck the southw^est corner of Great Salt 
Lake, traveUing over a country completely barren 
and destitute of game. We frequently travelled 
without water, sometimes for two days over sandy 
deserts where there was no sign of vegetation, and 
when we found water in some of the rocky hills, 
we most generally found some Indians who ap- 
peared the most miserable of the human race, hav- 
ing nothing to subsist on (nor any clothing) except 
grass-seed, grasshoppers, etc. When we arrived 
at the Salt Lake, we had but one horse and one 
mule remaining, which were so feeble and poor 
that they could scarce carry the little camp equip- 
age which I had along; the balance of my horses 
I was compelled to eat as they gave out." 

Thus characteristically, with few words. Smith 
describes what was unquestionably a great feat 
and what must have been a terrible experience. 
Twenty days of toil and suffering in an unknown 
desert, and all summed up in one hundred fifty 
words ! Most men would require more space for 
the discussion of an aching tooth. 



256 The Splendid Wayfaring 

With two companions Smith had at last pene- 
trated the great triangular white space of his 
dream. He had found no pleasant valleys rich 
in beaver; but he had been the first to travel the 
central route between the Great Salt Lake and 
the Pacific Ocean. The road from the Missouri 
River to San Francisco Bay was now open, await- 
ing the wagons of the settlers — and the official 
explorers I 



XX 

smith's second journey 1 

ON about the 17th of June, 1827, Jedediah 
Smith and his two companions, having 
crossed the Nevada deserts, reached the southern 
end of Salt Lake, from whence they hastened on 
to the southern end of Bear Lake, the place 
chosen by the three partners for the summer 
rendezvous. On July 17th, we find Smith still 
at the Bear Lake rendezvous, writing a brief ac- 
count of his recent journey to the Superintendent 
of Indian Affairs, General William Clark. 
Shortly thereafter his second journey to Cali- 
fornia began. His party consisted of nineteen 
men and two Indian women. The names of the 
men are as follows: Thomas Virgin (for whom 
the Virgin River was named), Charles Swift, 
Toussaint Marishall, John Turner, Joseph Pal- 
mer, Joseph La Point, Thomas Daws, Richard 
Taylor, Silas Gobel, David Cunningham, Francis 
Deramme, William Campbell, Boatswain Brown, 

1 This chapter is based on a MS. of the Kansas Hist. Soc., 
entitled, " Brief account of accidents, misfortunes, and depreda- 
tions committed by Indians on the firm of Smith, Jackson and 
Sublette, since July i, 1826, to the present, 1829"; ^"d on the 
Rogers Journals. 

257 



258 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Gregory Ortaga, John B. Ratelle, Pale, Polite, 
Robiseau, Isaac Galbraith. 

Following the same route that he had taken 
the year before, in late August Smith reached the 
country of the Mohave Indians near the point 
where the 35th parallel crosses the Colorado 
River. It will be remembered that Smith spent 
fifteen days with the Mohaves on his way to Cali- 
fornia the year before. Having good reason to 
regard them as friendly, he decided to spend a 
few days among them now, resting his men and 
horses and purchasing supplies before beginning 
the difficult westward journey across the desert. 
He could not know that, during the past year, 
these Indians had been ordered by Governor 
Echeandia to stop any Americans who might at- 
tempt to pass that way. 

After spending three days in peaceful trade 
with the Mohaves, Smith prepared to resume his 
journey. As on his previous trip, he had crossed 
the Colorado some distance above, and was now 
on the east side of the river. Unconscious of 
treacherous intent on the part of his hosts, he 
went about the task of transporting his party to 
the west bank by means of rafts made of bundles 
of reeds, the Indians very obligingly lending a 
hand. Smith and nine of his men had already 
crossed, some of the party was still on the east 
shore, and the remainder on the raft in mid- 
stream, when, at a signal, the Mohaves fell upon 



Smithes Second Journey 259 

their departing guests. The two Indian women 
were taken captive, Thomas Virgin was seriously 
wounded, and the following ten, who had not yet 
reached the west bank, were massacred: Gobel, 
Cunningham, Deramme, Campbell, Brown, Or- 
taga, Ratelle, Pale, Polite, and Robiseau. All of 
Smith's property and papers were lost. 

There was nothing for the survivors to do but 
to flee into the desert to the west. Travelling 
both by night and by day, they reached the Span- 
ish settlements near San Gabriel Mission in nine 
and one-half days. Considering the fact that 
Smith had spent fifteen days in covering the same 
ground on his former trip, one can imagine the 
mood of desperation that drove him now. 

Immediately upon arriving at the settlements. 
Smith reported by letter to the proper authorities; 
and, having purchased some supplies (for the 
party was destitute), he pushed on northwest- 
wardly up the central valley to join the band of 
eleven men that he had left in the region of the 
Stanislaus River on his departure for Salt Lake 
in May of that year. During the absence of their 
leader, the little band had fared badly, and Smith 
found them half starved. He and his companions 
were no better off; and there was nothing to do 
but to place himself once more at the doubtful 
mercy of the Spaniards. So, with two Indian 
guides. Smith went to the Mission of San Jose — 
a three days' journey. There he made his wants 



2 6o The Splendid Wayfaring 

known and asked permission to go on to Mon- 
terey where Governor Echeandia was then re- 
siding. He was arrested and thrown into a guard 
house, from which, however, he was allowed to 
write to the Captain of the Upper Province. 

About two weeks passed before he received a 
letter from the Governor, inviting him to call. 
Then, disarmed and guarded by four soldiers, he 
set out for Monterey, where he arrived at mid- 
night after a journey of three days. Again he 
was thrown into prison, remaining there without 
food or water until the following noon, when the 
Governor sent for him. 

As a result of the first interview, Smith " ob- 
tained liberty of the limits of the town and harbor 
and of boarding with an American gentleman 
(Captain Cooper) of Boston." Day after day 
passed by, and still Echeandia could not make up 
his mind as to what should be done with this 
American trapper who had actually committed 
the crime of entering Mexican territory! At 
times it seemed that the intruder would be sent 
to Mexico; again, he must leave the country by 
ship; at other times, the whole party yonder in 
the region of the Stanislaus was to be summoned 
to Monterey. 

Finally, when it became apparent that the Gov- 
ernor was quite incapable of a decision, four 
American sea captains, whose vessels were lying 
in the harbor, took the matter into their own 



Smithes Second Journey 261 

hands and appointed Captain Cooper agent for 
the United States. Cooper soon settled the mat- 
ter, and on November 15 th, 1827, Sm.ith gave 
bond in the sum of thirty thousand dollars, prom- 
ising to leave the country within two months. 

Smith had left nineteen men encamped in the 
region of the Stanislaus when he went to Mon- 
terey; and during his tedious negotiations with the 
Governor, these had been brought into San Fran- 
cisco, where Smith now joined them after pur- 
chasing some horses, guns, ammunition and other 
necessities. Thomas Virgin, who had been left 
in the South because of his wounds, was sent for. 
At about this time two of the men, who seem to 
have been Isaac Galbraith and the quarrelsome 
blacksmith, James Read, deserted, leaving the fol- 
lowing nineteen in the band that began the return 
journey early in December: Smith, Rogers, Vir- 
gin, Black, La Point, Daws, La Plant, Swift, 
Turner, Gaiter, Hanna, Lazarus, Palmer, Ranne 
(the negro), Taylor, McCoy, Reubasco, Mari- 
shall, and Evans. 

Trapping as they went, these moved slowly up 
the Sacramento River, spending considerable time 
on the largest tributary of that stream, which, 
for that reason, has since been called American 
Fork. It seems to have been Smith's intention 
to cross the Sierras as early in the spring as pos- 
sible, and return to Salt Lake through the un- 
known country lying north of his route of 1827. 



262 The Splendid Wayfaring 

But in April, 1828, after several unsuccessful at- 
tempts to find a practicable pass to the eastward, 
he was forced to change his plan and make for 
the Columbia. He now left the Sacramento Val- 
ley, striking out through the mountainous country 
in the direction of the coast. 

By the 13th of May, 1828, he had crossed the 
Trinity River near latitude 40° 30', and reached 
the base of Hoopa Mountain. The following ex- 
tracts from the Journal kept by Rogers during 
this time will give some idea of the difficulties 
encountered by the party: 

"Wednesday, May 14th. We made an early 
start, directing our course northwest, and trav- 
elled four miles and encamped on the top of a 
high mountain, where there was but indifferent 
grass for the horses. The travelling amazing 
bad; we descended one point of brushy and rocky 
mountain where it took us about six hours to 
get the horses down, some of them falling about 
fifty feet perpendicular down a steep place into 
a creek. One broke his neck. A number of 
packs left along the trail, as night was fast ap- 
proaching, and we were obliged to leave them and 
get what horses we could, collected at camp. A 
number more got badly hurt by the falls, but 
none killed but this one that broke his neck. Saw 
some Indians (Hoopas) that crossed the river in 
a canoe and came to see us. . . . They appear 



Smith's Second Journey 263 

afraid of horses. They are very light-colored 
Indians, quite small and talkative. 

" Thursday, 15th May, 1828. The men were 
divided into parties this morning, some sent hunt- 
ing, as we have no meat in camp, others sent back 
for the horses. 

** Friday, May i6th, 1828. We concluded 
that it was best to lie by today and send two men 
to look out a pass to travel, as the country looks 
awful ahead, and let our horses rest, as there is 
pretty good grass about one mile off for them to 
feed on. . . . 

"Saturday, May 17th. The two men that 
were sent on discovery yesterday returned this 
morning, and say that we are fifteen or twenty 
miles from the North Pacific Ocean. They re- 
port game plenty, such as elk and deer. They 
report the traveUing favorable to what it has 
been for thirty or forty miles back. . . . The 
two men, Marishall and Turner, that were sent 
off yesterday, killed three deer, and Captain Smith 
has dispatched two men after the meat, as the 
camp is almost destitute. 

" Monday, May 19th. We made an early 
start this morning, steering our course as yester- 
day, six miles west, and encamped on the side of 
the mountain. . . . The travelling some better 
than it was back, although we have hills and brush 
to encounter yet. We encamped about six miles 



264 The Splendid Wayfaring 

from the ocean, where we have a fair view of it. 
/' Tuesday, May 20th. As our horses were 
lame and tired, we concluded to remain here and 
let them rest, and kill and dry meat, as elk ap- 
peared to be plenty from the sign. After break- 
fast myself and Mr. Virgin started on horse back 
for the sea shore, following an Indian trail that 
led immediately there. After proceeding about 
five miles west, we found we could not get any 
further on horse back along the Indian trail; so 
we struck out from the creek that we had fol- 
lowed down, and about three miles from where 
we first struck it. After leaving the creek with 
some considerable difficulty, we ascended a point 
of steep and brushy mountain that runs along 
parallel to the seashore, and followed that until 
we could get no further for rocks and brush. We 
got within eighty or one hundred yards of the 
beach, but being pretty much fatigued, and not 
able to ride down on account of rocks and brush, 
we did not proceed any further in that direction. 
. . . On our return we saw some elk. I went 
after them, and Mr. Virgin stayed with the horses. 
I did not get to fire *on them, and saw a black 
bear and made after him, and shot and wounded 
him very badly, and heard Mr. Virgin shoot and 
call me to come to him. I made all the haste I 
could in climbing the mountain to where Mr. Vir- 
gin was. He told me that some Indians had 
attacked him in my absence, shot a number of 



Smith's Second Journey 265 

arrows at him and wounded the horses. ... I 
rested a few minutes and proceeded on cautiously 
to the place where we had left the horses, and 
found an Indian lying dead and his dog by him. 
Mr. Virgin's horse had two or three arrows in 
him, and he lying down. We got him up and 
made camp a little before night. 

"Wednesday, May 21st. Still at the same 
camp. . . . The timber in this part of this coun- 
try is principally hemlock, pine, and white cedar, 
the cedar trees from fTve to fifteen feet in diam- 
eter. The underbrush is hazel, oak, briars, cur- 
rants, gooseberry and Scotch-cap bushes, together 
with alder, and sundry other shrubs too tedious 
to mention. The soil of the country is very rich 
and black, but very mountainous, which renders 
the travelling almost impossible with so many 
horses as we have. 

" Thursday, May 22nd. All hands up early 
and preparing for a move. Had the horses 
driven to camp and caught ready for packing up, 
and it commenced raining so fast that we con- 
cluded to remain here today, as we could not see 
to direct our course for fog along the mountains. 
We have not seen or heard any Indians since the 
20th, when Mr. Virgin killed the one that shot 
at his horse. Oh, God, may it please Thee, in 
Thy divine providence, to still guide and protect 
us through this wilderness of doubt and fear, as 
Thou hast done heretofore, and be with us in the 



266 The Splendid Wayfaring 

hour of danger and difficulty as all praise Is due to 
Thee and not to man. Oh, do not forsake us, 
Lord, but be with us and direct us through." 

For nearly two weeks thereafter the party 
wandered about the rugged country, seeking a 
way down to the coast; and more than once they 
found It necessary to turn back over hard-won 
miles because of some impassable barrier. Dur- 
ing this time they were forced to kill their " last 
dog " for food, as they were " entirely out of 
provisions with the exception of a few pounds of 
flour and rice." 

Finally on June 8th they managed to reach the 
ocean near the mouth of the Klamath River, and 
camped on the beach. Henceforth they kept to 
the coast, sometimes riding at the very lip of the 
surf, sometimes swinging a mile or so Inland. 
Now and then the deep and yawning mouth of a 
stream made It necessary to build rafts. Game 
was somewhat more plentiful now; and various 
articles of food, such as camas root, clams, dried 
fish and berries, were bought with beads from the 
Indians, who generally displayed rather more fear 
than friendliness, and sometimes risked a sneaking 
hostility. On the 23rd of June the party crossed 
the 42nd parallel, the northern boundary of the 
Mexican country. 

Under date of July 2nd Rogers tells us that 
" as the most of the men's times expired this eve- 
ning. Captain Smith called all hands and gave 



Smithes Second Journey 267 

them up their articles, and engaged the following 
men to go on with him until he reaches the place 
of deposit, viz : John Gaiter, Arthur Black, John 
Hanna, Emanuel Lazarus, Abraham La Plant, 
Charles Swift, Thomas Daws, Toussaint Mari- 
shall. Daws' time to commence when he gets 
well enough for duty. Also Peter Ranne and 
Joseph Palmer, at the above named price, one dol- 
lar per day, and Martin McCoy two hundred 
dollars from the time he left the Spanish country 
until he reaches the deposit." 

On the 4th of July, so Rogers tells us, " Mari- 
shall caught a boy about ten years old and brought 
him to camp. I gave him some beads and dried 
meat. He appears well satisfied." 

Still pushing northward along the coast, on 
July nth the party reached the Umpqua River, 
and camped near a village of Umpqua Indians, 
who seemed altogether friendly. The last two 
entries made by Rogers in his diary run as follows : 

" Saturday, July 12th. We commenced cross- 
ing the river early and had our goods and horses 
over by eight o'clock, then packed up and started 
a northeast course up the river and travelled three 
miles and encamped. Had several Indians along. 
One of the Indians stole an ax and we were 
obliged to seize him for the purpose of tying him 
before we could scare him to make him give it up. 
Captain Smith and one of them caught him and 
put a cord around his neck, and the rest of us 



268 The Splendid Wayfaring 

stood with our guns ready In case they made any 
resistance. There were about fifty Indians pres- 
ent, but they did not pretend to resist tying the 
other. The river at this place is about three 
hundred yards wide and makes a large bay that 
extends four or five miles up in the pine hills. . . . 
We traded some land and sea otter and beaver fur 
In the course of the day. Those Indians bring 
Pacific raspberries and other berries. 

" Sunday, July 13th, 1828. We made a pretty 
good start this morning, directing our course 
along the bay east, and travelled four miles and 
encamped. Fifty or sixty Indians In camp again 
today. We traded fifteen or twenty beaver skins 
from them, some elk meat and tallow, also some 
lamprey eels. The travelHng quite miry In 
places. We got a number of our pack-horses 
mired, and had to bridge several places. A con- 
siderable thunder shower this morning, and rain 
at intervals through the day. Those Indians tell 
us after we get up the river fifteen or twenty miles 
we will have good travelling to the Wei Hamett 
or Multinomah, where the Callipoo Indians live." 

While writing these words — the last he would 
ever write — Rogers must have felt that his 
earnest prayers had been answered. The " Wei 
Hamett or Multinomah " was the Willamette 
River. A day or two of easy travel, and they 
would be In the valley of that stream with a good 
trail leading northward down to the Columbia 



Smithes Second Journey 269 

and the great post of the Hudson Bay Company, 
Fort Vancouver. Both by trapping and through 
trade with the natives they had, in spite of their 
hardships, accumulated a large amount of beaver 
fur during their long northward journey through 
a virgin wilderness; and though they were still 
far from their comrades under Sublette and Jack- 
son, the unknown country had been passed, and 
henceforth they would travel by river valleys all 
the way to the headwaters of the Snake, where 
the main body would be waiting. Doubtless it 
was a merry company that camped on the north 
bank of the Umpqua that night of July 13th, 
1828. 

Early the next morning, Smith, as had been his 
habit, started afoot up the river to find a good 
trail for his party, " the country being very 
swampy in the lowlands and woody in the moun- 
tains." One account states that he went alone; 
another, that he went with " a little Englishman " 
and an Indian; a third, that he was accompanied 
by two of his party and one Umpqua. Strict or- 
ders were given that no Indians should be admitted 
to the camp during his absence; but scarcely had 
he disappeared up river when the order was dis- 
obeyed. The penalty for disobedience was swift 
and terrible. 

On July 1 2th, it will be remembered. Smith had 
dealt rather roughly with the Indian who had 
stolen an ax. This man, who happened to be a 



270 The Splendid Wayfaring 

chief, now seized the opportunity to avenge his 
wounded dignity. At a signal from him the In- 
dians, outnumbering the little band three to one, 
attacked the unsuspecting trappers. Effective re- 
sistance was out of the question. Fifteen of the 
white men went down at once under the knives of 
the Indians. Only two of those In camp escaped 
— Black and Turner. At the moment when the 
signal for attack was given. Black, who seems to 
have been out of the crowd, had just cleaned and 
loaded his gun. Three Indians leaped upon him, 
but he succeeded in shaking them off; and seeing 
his comrades down and fighting hopelessly, he 
fired into the mass of Indians and fled Into the 
heavily wood country to the north. Turner, a 
very large and powerful man, was serving as cook 
that day. Having no weapon within reach when 
the savages fell upon him, he snatched a burning 
stick from the fire, knocked down four of his as- 
sailants, and ran up stream In the direction taken 
by Smith, whom he met returning at some dis- 
tance from the camp. Turner was under the im- 
pression that he was the sole survivor of the 
camp; and, realizing the Impossibility of coping 
with their numerous enemies, these fled together 
up the Umpqua and across the divide to the 
Willamette. Black, in the meanwhile, was fol- 
lowing the coast northward, convinced that he 
alone had escaped. 

In his Autobiography, Dr. McLoughlin, factor 
of Fort Vancouver on the Columbia, gives the fol- 



Smithes Second Journey 271 

lowing account of the affair ^ : " One night in 
August, 1828, I was surprised by the Indians 
making a great noise at the gate of the fort, say- 
ing that they had brought an American. The 
gate was opened, the man (Black) came in, but 
was so affected he could not speak. After sitting 
down some minutes to recover himself, he told 
us he was, he thought, the only survivor of eight- 
een men conducted by Jedediah Smith. All the 
rest, he thought, were murdered. . . . Broken 
down by hunger and misery, as he had no food but 
a few wild berries which he found on the beach, 
he determined to give himself up to the Killimour, 
a tribe on the coast of Cape Lookout, who treated 
him with great humanity, relieved his wants and 
brought him to the fort, for which, in case whites 
might again fall in their power, and to induce 
them to act kindly to them, I rewarded them most 
liberally. But as Smith and his two men might 
have escaped, and, if we made no search for, 
them, die at daybreak the next morning, I sent 
Indian runners with tobacco to the Willamette 
chiefs to tell them to send their people in search 
of Smith and his two men, and if they found them, 
to bring them to the fort and I would pay them, 
and telHng them if any Indians hurt these men we 
would punish them, and immediately equipped a 
strong party of forty well-armed men. But as 
the men were embarking, to our great joy Smith 
and his two men arrived. 

1 Clarke. "Pioneer Days of Oregon History." 



272 The Splendid Wayfaring 

'' I then arranged as strong a party as I could 
make to recover all we could of Smith's property. 
I divulged my plan to none, but gave written in- 
structions to the officer, to be opened early when 
he got to the Umpqua, because if known before 
they got there, the officers would talk of it among 
themselves, the men would hear it and from them 
it would go to their Indian wives, who were spies 
on us, and my plan would be defeated. The plan 
was that the officer was, as usual, to invite the 
Indians to bring their furs to trade, just as if noth- 
ing had happened. Count the furs, but as the 
American trappers mark all their skins, keep these 
all separate, give them to Mr. Smith and not pay 
the Indians for them, telling them that they be- 
longed to him, that they got them by murdering 
Smith's people." 

As a result of this expedition sent out, " from 
a principle of Christian duty," by Dr. McLough- 
lin. Smith recovered most of his peltry, which he 
sold to the Hudson Bay Company, receiving there- 
for a draft on London for $20,000. Some of the 
horses of the ill-fated party were also returned, 
together with a few articles of personal property, 
among which was the diary of Harrison G. Rogers 
which we have been quoting. 

In order to appreciate the magnanimity of Dr. 
McLoughlin, It must be remembered that the firm 
of Smith, Jackson and Sublette was then coming 
to be regarded as a somewhat dangerous com- 



Smithes Second Journey 273 

petitor; and considering the manner In which the 
Americans had relieved Ogden of a fortune in 
furs during the spring of 1825, a lesser man than 
McLoughlin might have seized this opportunity 
to enjoy the discomfiture of his rivals. 

In his " Pioneer Days of Oregon History," S. 
A. Clarke, who knew McLoughlin, has left us the 
following tribute to this fine old gentleman: 
" Over six feet In height, powerfully made, with 
a grand head on massive shoulders and long snow- 
white locks covering them, he was a splendid 
picture of a man. The Indians knew him as the 
White Eagle, and they respected him as they never 
did anyone else. . . . He was a convert to Ca- 
tholicism, and in no sense was he a bigot or lack- 
ing In the Christian charity that recognizes true 
effort with good will wherever It Is met. . . . 
His policy to effect peace with the Indians was 
potent for good. . . . With his grand manner 
and majestic port, heightened by white, waving 
hair, he was the embodiment of power and jus- 
tice. . . . He was indeed, as he was styled, ' the 
Czar of the West.' His rule was imperial for a 
thousand miles, and his mere word was law. Yet 
there was a genuine beneficence in his nature that 
overcame the pride of life and the lust of the 
flesh, and made him the special providence to 
open the Canaan of the Occident to the Civiliza- 
tion of the East." 



XXI 

THE END OF THE TRAIL 

DURING the absence of Jedediah Smith, 
the main body of trappers under Sublette 
and Jackson had been working in the upper Snake 
River country, and in the fall of 1828 they re- 
turned to Great Salt Lake for the winter. 
Shortly afterward, Sublette started for St. Louis 
with the furs, travelling by way of South Pass 
and the Platte. He reached his destination 
about the middle of December, 1828, and in 
March, 1829, began the return journey to the 
mountains with sixty men and a train of supplies. 
He ascended the North Platte to the Sweetwater, 
thence heading for the Popo Agie, a southern 
tributary of the Wind River, where the summer 
rendezvous was to be held. Reaching the ap- 
pointed place about July ist, he found there a 
greater portion of the band that had wintered at 
Salt Lake. Jackson had remained with a small 
party west of the Great Divide. 

According to Joseph Meek, who made his first 
trip to the mountains that year, the rendezvous 
lasted until about the first of August. " In this 
period," says Meek, " the men, Indian alHes, and 

274 



The End of the Trail 275 

other Indian parties who usually visited the camp 
at this time, were all supplied with goods. The 
remaining merchandise was adjusted for the con- 
venience of the different traders who should be 
sent out through all the country traversed by the 
company. Sublette then decided upon their 
routes, dividing up his forces Into camps, which 
took each its appointed course, detaching, as It 
went, small parties of trappers to all the hunting 
grounds in the neighborhood." ^ 

Sublette himself now set forth to find Smith, 
who had agreed to meet him on the upper waters 
of the Snake River. He pushed up the Wind 
River, crossed the mountains and entered the 
valley now called Jackson's Hole, after the part- 
ner whom he found encamped there. For some 
time Sublette and Jackson waited at this point 
for Jedediah Smith. Finally growing uneasy, 
Sublette sent small parties out in various direc- 
tions to search for the missing partner. One of 
these bands wandered Into Pierre's Hole, '' an 
emerald cup set in Its rim of amethystine moun- 
tains," and there, with but four men — one of 
whom was Arthur Black — Smith was found trap- 
ping along the streams of the beautiful valley. 
He had spent the winter of 1828-29 at Fort Van- 
couver as the guest of the venerable Dr. Mc- 
LoughHn; and in March he had resumed his jour- 
ney toward the place of rendezvous, ascending 

1 victor, op. cit. 



276 The Splendid Wayfaring 

the Columbia to a point near the big bend, thence 
striking out north and east to Flathead House, 
from whence, turning southward along the route 
he had followed with Ogden in the winter of 
1824-25, he had reached Pierre's Hole. 

We are told that there was great rejoicing over 
the finding of Smith; and well might this be, 
though it is doubtful if the importance of what 
this man had accomplished was thoroughly under- 
stood by his comrades. His had been the first 
overland party of Americans to reach California; 
he had been the first white man to travel the cen- 
tral route from Salt Lake to the Pacific, and the 
first to traverse the full length of California and 
Oregon by land. Of the thirty-two men who had 
shared in his adventures, twenty five had been 
slain by the Mohaves and the Umpquas. During 
three years of wandering west of the Rockies, he 
had covered fourteen degrees of latitude and 
eleven degrees of longitude. It was one of the 
greatest of Western explorers that Sublette's men 
found trapping in Pierre's Hole that summer of 
1829 — and he was then but thirty one years old! 

During his sojourn with Dr. McLoughlin at 
Fort Vancouver, Smith, by way of showing grati- 
tude for the generosity of his host, had agreed 
that the firm of which he was a member should 
henceforth confine its operations to the country 
east of the Great Divide. Accordingly, after 
spending the balance of the summer in Pierre's 



The End of the Trail 277 

Hole, the three partners crossed over to the head- 
waters of the Madison Fork of the Missouri. 
During the fall and early winter of 1829, the 
various parties of the firm worked the country 
lying between the sources of the Missouri and 
Yellowstone, finally going into winter quarters 
on the Wind River. While the camp was cele- 
brating Christmas, William L. Sublette and Black 
Harris, with a few dogs to carry their blankets 
and supplies, started on snow-shoes for St. Louis. 
Sublette took with him a letter from Jed Smith 
to his brother, Ralph, of Ashtabula, Ohio, urging 
the latter to come west. 

Shortly after the departure of Sublette and 
Harris, the party on the Wind River, finding the 
pasturage there insufficient for the horses, moved 
to the Powder River. After much wandering 
and many stirring adventures during the spring 
and early summer of 1830, the party moved back 
to the valley of the Wind River, where the ren- 
dezvous of that year was to be held. 

On the loth of July, Sublette arrived with 
eighty-one men mounted on mules, ten loaded 
wagons drawn by five-mule teams, two dearborn 
buggies, a milch cow, and twelve head of steers — 
the latter having been driven along as an insur- 
ance against famine until the buffalo country 
should be reached. The wagons and buggies 
brought out by Sublette that year were the first 
to trundle up the great natural road soon to be 



278 The Splendid Wayfaring 

known as the Oregon and California Trail. 

The Wind River rendezvous of 1830 was the 
last ever held by the firm of Smith, Jackson and 
Sublette; for in the first week of August the busi- 
ness was sold to a new firm, called The Rocky 
Mountain Fur Company, and composed of 
Thomas Fitzpatrick, Milton G. Sublette (a 
brother of William L.), Henry Fraeb, Jean Bap- 
tiste Gervais, and James Bridger. 

Immediately after the sale, Smith, Jackson and 
Sublette began the journey to St. Louis, with one 
hundred ninety packs of beaver, worth about 
$80,000. Reaching the city in October, 1830, 
Jed found his two brothers, Austin and Peter, 
awaiting his arrival, Ralph having been unable 
to leave home. 

At that time the golden era of the Rocky Moun- 
tain fur trade was nearing its end, and more 
and more the adventurous spirits of the frontier 
were becoming interested in the overland traffic 
with Taos and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Until 
the beginning of the 19th century. New Mexico 
had received all its imported goods from Vera 
Cruz over a long and difficult trail; but early in 
the century American merchants had begun to real- 
ize the fact that goods could be transported more 
cheaply to New Mexico by way of the Missouri 
River and the Great Plains than from any Mexi- 
can port. In 1804 one Morrison, a merchant of 
the old French town of Kaskaskia, succeeded in 



The End of the Trail 279 

sending a pack-train of merchandise to Santa Fe, 
but lost the profits of his venture through the dis- 
honesty of his agent. Other merchants followed 
the example of Morrison, but none attained any 
conspicuous success during the next seventeen 
years. 

Joslah Gregg, the principal authority on this 
unique phase of westward expansion, tells us that 
the Santa Fe trade may be dated from the year 
1 82 1 when " Captain WilHam Becknell of Mis- 
souri, with four trusty companions, went out to 
Santa Fe by the far western prairie route." ^ 
This band started from Franklin, a town on the 
Missouri River two hundred miles above Its 
mouth. " Notwithstanding the trifling amount of 
merchandise they were possessed of," says Gregg, 
'*they realized a handsome profit"; and there- 
after the trade with Santa Fe Increased rapidly. 
In 1822 the value of merchandise transported 
westward across the prairies and the deserts was 
$15,000; In 1824, $35,000; In 1825, $65,000; In 
1827, $90,000; In 1828, $150,000; In 1831, 
$250,000! Up to the year 1823, pack-animals 
alone were used. In 1824, wagons were em- 
ployed for the first time; and after 1826 all traf- 
fic was by wagon. 

It will be remembered that when Jededlah 
Smith first landed In St. Louis, the great period 
of the fur trade was just beginning, and men 

1 Gregg. " Commerce of the Prairies." 



28o The Splendid Wayfaring 

talked of little else than the fortunes that could 
be realized in that romantic industry. Eight 
years had passed since that time, and now the 
Santa Fe trade was the talk of the town. Smith, 
in company with his brothers, Peter and Austin, 
and his partners, Sublette and Jackson, decided 
to engage in this new business. 

On April loth, 1831, the Smith party, con- 
sisting of eighty five men, started from St. Louis 
with twenty two loaded wagons and a six-pound 
cannon. Travelling up the valley of the Missouri 
River, they met Thomas Fitzpatrick near Lexing- 
ton. He was returning to St. Louis from the 
Yellowstone country, but was easily persuaded to 
accompany his old comrades to Santa Fe. 

Near the last of April the party reached the 
town of Independence, which, though but four 
years old, had already come to be the point of 
rendezvous for the Santa Fe traders, as well as 
for the Rocky Mountain trappers. Formerly the 
town of Franklin, one hundred eighty seven miles 
down stream had been the point of departure; 
but with the founding of Independence in 1827, 
the latter place was found to be more convenient, 
being the westernmost settlement on the Missouri, 
a stream that was navigable for at least eight 
months during the year and offered a cheap and 
easy means of transportation from St. Louis. 

On the 4th of May, 1831, the wagon train of 
Smith, Jackson and Sublette moved out from In- 



The End of the Trail 281 

dependence on the road to Santa Fe with seven 
hundred seventy five miles of prairie wilderness 
ahead. The first point of importance reached 
after leaving the border was Council Grove, one 
hundred fifty miles out — a wooded valley lying 
along a branch of the Neosho River. Here it 
was customary for the westbound parties to halt 
for the purpose of electing officers, deciding upon 
the order of march, agreeing as to the rules that 
should be obeyed, and defining the duties that 
should be performed by each member. 

Josiah Gregg, who started with a caravan for 
Santa Fe just eleven days after the departure of 
Smith's party, has left us a vivid account of the 
organization and personnel of these parties: 
" One would have supposed," he writes, '* that 
electioneering and party spirit would hardly have 
penetrated so far into the wilderness; but so it 
was. Even In our little community we had our 
office seekers and their political adherents, as 
earnest and devoted as any of the modern school 
of politicians In the midst of civilization." When 
a *' Captain of the Caravan " had been elected, 
the business of organization began. '* The pro- 
prietors were notified by proclamation to furnish 
a list of their men and wagons. The latter were 
generally apportioned into four divisions. . . . 
To each of these divisions a lieutenant was ap- 
pointed, whose duty It was to Inspect every ravine 
and creek on the route, select the best crossings, 



282 The Splendid Wayfaring 

and superintend what Is called, In prairie par- 
lance, the forming of the caravan. . . . 

" The wild and motley character of the cara- 
van," continues Gregg, " can be but imperfectly 
conceived without an idea of the costumes of the 
various members. The most fashionable prairie 
dress is the fustian frock of the city-bred mer- 
chant, furnished with a multitude of pockets 
capable of accommodating a variety of ' extra 
tackling.' Then there Is the backwoodsman with 
his linsey or leather hunting shirt — the farmer 
with blue jean coat — the wagoner with his flan- 
nel-sleeve vest — besides an assortment of other 
costumes which go to fill up the picture. 

" In the article of fire-arms there is also an 
equally Interesting medley. The frontier hunter 
sticks to his rifle, as nothing could induce him to 
carry what he terms in derision ' the scatter gun.' 
The sportsman from the interior flourishes his 
double-barrel fowling piece with equal confidence 
in Its superiority. The latter Is certainly the 
most convenient description of gun that can be 
carried on the journey, as a charge of buckshot 
In night attacks (which are the most common) 
will of course be more likely to do execution than 
a single rifle-ball fired at random. ... A great 
many were furnished beside with a bountiful sup- 
ply of pistols and knives of every description. 

" At the Council Grove the laborers were em- 
ployed in procuring timber for axle-trees and 



The End of the Trail 283 

other wagon repairs, of which a supply is always 
laid in before leaving this region of substantial 
growths; for henceforward there is no wood on 
the route fit for these purposes; not even in the 
mountains of Santa Fe do we meet with any 
serviceable timber. The supply procured here is 
generally lashed under the wagons, in which way 
a log is not infrequently carried to Santa Fe, and 
even sometimes back again." -^ 

Final preparations having been made at Coun- 
cil Grove, the caravan began the journey in ear- 
nest. Gregg tells us that when the nature of the 
country would permit, It was customary to march 
in four columns, and he remarks that a caravan 
proceeding in this manner " presented a very fine 
and imposing spectacle." In making camp for 
the night, or in case of attack by Indians during 
the day, the wagons were thus easily placed in the 
most advantageous position for defence, the ex- 
terior columns swinging outward and then meet- 
ing, the two inner columns falling back and wheel- 
ing outward to form a quadrangle with the first 
two 'columns. Into the corral thus formed the 
animals were driven, thus rendering a stampede 
impossible, while, prcftected by the hollow square 
of heavily loaded wagons, the men were enabled 
to render a very good account of themselves in 
case of a scrimmage. 

The caravan of Smith, Jackson and Sublette 

1" Commerce of the Prairies," 



284 The Splendid Wayfaring 

pushed forward rapidly, reaching the Ford of the 
Arkansas Rirer, three hundred ninety two miles 
west of Independence, in about three weeks. 
Thus far no considerable difficulties had been en- 
countered; and though they had lost one man, 
who had strayed away from the main body and 
been killed by Pawnees, they had every reason to 
be in the best of spirits, for they had now covered 
slightly more than half the distance to Santa Fe. 

However, they were now about to enter upon 
the most difficult stage of the whole journey. 
After crossing the Arkansas, the route led for a 
distance of over sixty miles across a region of 
utter desolation to the forks of the Cimarron 
River. " This tract of country," says Gregg, 
" may truly be styled the grand prairie ocean; for 
not a single landmark is to be seen for more than 
forty miles — scarcely a visible eminence by which 
to direct one's course. All is as level as the sea, 
and the compass was our surest as well as our 
principal guide." 

Before entering this desert, it was customary to 
lay in a good supply of water. Smith and his 
comrades seem to have neglected this precaution, 
hoping, doubtless, to find occasional water holes; 
but the summer of 1831 was unusually dry, and 
no water holes were found. Within two days 
after striking out from the Arkansas, the party 
began to experience the tortures of thirst and the 



The End of the Trail 285 

famished animals began to die. Confused by a 
maze of buffalo trails that led nowhere, taunted 
and misled by lying mirages, Smith and his com- 
rades struggled onward. 

We will let Josiah Gregg tell the rest of the 
melancholy story. He had it from a Mexican 
buffalo hunter, who, in turn, had been told by 
the Comanche Indians, themselves protagonists in 
the final act of the tragedy: " In this perilous 
situation, Capt. Smith resolved at last to pursue 
one of the seductive buffalo paths, in hopes it 
might lead to the margin of some stream or pond. 
He set out alone ; for besides the temerity which 
desperation always inspires, he had ever been a 
stranger to fear; indeed he was one of the most 
undaunted spirits that had ever traversed the 
Rocky Mountains. . . . But, alas! for unfor- 
tunate Capt. Smith! After having so often 
dodged the arrow and eluded the snare of the 
wily mountain Indian, little could he have thought, 
while jogging along under a scorching sun, that 
his bones were destined to bleach upon those arid 
sands I He had already wandered many miles 
away from his comrades, when, on turning over 
an erriinence, his eyes were joyfully greeted with 
the appearance of a small stream meandering 
through the valley that spread before him. It 
was the Cimarron. He hurried forward to slake 
the fire of his parched lips — but imagine his dis- 



2 86 The Splendid Wayfaring 

appointment at finding In the channel only a bed 
of dry sand! With his hands, however, he soon 
scratched out a basin a foot or two deep, Into 
which the water slowly oozed from the saturated 
sand. While with his head bent down. In the 
effort to quench his burning thirst, he was pierced 
by the arrows of a gang of Comanches, who were 
lying In wait for him I Yet he struggled bravely 
to the last; and, as the Indians themselves have 
since related, killed two or three of their party 
before he was overpowered." 

Thus, on the 27th of May, 1831, died Jededlah 
Strong Smith at the age of thirty three. No 
monument marks the spot where this great West- 
ern explorer met his end. His bones were picked 
by the wolves and crows and left to bleach In the 
arid bed of the Cimarron until the next freshet 
should bury them In the sands. 

At winter quarters on the Wind River In De- 
cember, 1829, Smith had written as follows to his 
brother Ralph; and no man who knew him 
ever questioned his sincerity: " It Is that I may 
be able to help those who stand In need that I 
face every danger. It is for this that I pass over 
the sandy plains, in heat of summer, thirsting for 
water where I may cool my overheated body. It 
is for this that I go for days without eating, and 
am pretty well satisfied If I can gather a few 
roots, a few snails, or better satisfied if we can 
afford ourselves a piece of horse-flesh, or a fine 



The End of the Trail 287 

roasted dog; and most of all It is for this that I 
deprive myself of the privilege of society and the 
satisfaction of the converse of my friends! " 
Let his own words be his epitaph. 



LIST OF SOURCES 

Dale, H. C. The Ashley-Smith Explorations and the 
Discovery of a Central Route to the Pacific. Cleve- 
land. The Arthur H. Clark Co. 191 8. 

Chittenden, H. M. The American Fur Trade of the 
Far West. New York. Francis P. Harper. 1902. 
3 vols. 

South Dakota Historical Society Collections. Vols. I 
and HI. 

Flint, Timothy. Recollections of the Past Ten Years. 
Boston. 1826. 

Howe, Henry. Historical Collections of the Great 
AVest. New York and Cincinnati, 1857. 

Solitaire (John S. Robb). Major Fitzpatrick, Discov- 
erer of South Pass. St. Louis Weekly Reveille, 
March ist, 1847. 

Smith, J. S. Letter to General Clark, written at *' Lit- 
tle Lake of Bear River, July 17th, 1827." In 
Kansas Historical Society MSS. Given in full by 
Dale. 

Rogers, Harrison G. Journals describing portions of 
both journeys of Smith to California. Missouri 
Historical Society MSS. Dale presents these for 
the first time. 

Ashley, William H. Letter to General Atkinson, written 
at St. Louis, Dec. i, 1825, describing the winter 
journey from Fort Atkinson to Green River and the 
descent of Green River. Missouri Historical So- 
ciety MSS. Given in full by Dale. 

Smith, Austin. Letter to his father, written at " Walnut 
Creek on the Arkansas, three hundred miles from 
the settlements of Missouri, Sept. 24, 1831." Gives 
288 



List of Sources 289 

account of the death of J. S. Smith. Kansas His- 
torical Society MSS. 

Smith, J. S. Letter to his brother, Ralph, written at 
Wind River, Dec. 24, 1829. Kansas Historical 
Society MSS. 

Gregg, Josiah. The Commerce of the Prairies. New 
York, 1845. Reprinted in Thwaites' Early West- 
ern Travels, vols. XIX and XX. Cleveland, 1905. 

Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied. Travels in the 
Interior of North America. London, 1843. 

Clarke, S. A. Pioneer Days of Oregon History. Port- 
land, 1905. 2 vols. 

Richman, I. B. California under Spain and Mexico. 
Boston, 191 1. 

Bonner, T. D. The Life and Adventures of James P. 
Beckwourth. New edition edited by Godfrey Le- 
land. London, 1892. 

Dodge, Major General G. M. Biographical Sketch of 
James Bridger. New York, 1905. 

Victor, F. F. The River of the West. Hartford, 1870. 

Encyclopedia of St. Louis, 1899. 

The Western Monthly Review. Cincinnati, 1830. 
Vol. III. 

Laut, A. C. The Conquest of the Great Northwest. 
New York, 1908. 2 vols. 

Parker, Rev. Samuel. Journal of an Exploring Tour 
Beyond the Rocky Mountains. Ithaca, 1844. 

Ruxton, G. F. Life in the Far West. Edinburgh, 1887. 

Adventures in Mexico. London, 1847. 

Sage, R. B. Rocky Mountain Life. Boston, 1847. 

Farnham, T. J. Travels in the Great Western Prairies. 
New York, 1843. 

Coutant, C. G. History of Wyoming. Laramie, 1899. 

Wyeth, J. B. Oregon, etc. Cambridge, 1833. Re- 
printed in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, vol. 
XXI. Cleveland, 1905. 



290 The Splendid Wayfaring 

Hodge, F. W. Handbook of American Indians. Wash- 
ington, 1912. 2 vols. 

Ogden, G. W. Letters from the West, etc. Reprinted 
in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, vol. XIX. 
Cleveland, 1905. 

Bullock, W. A. Journey through the Western States, 
etc. Reprinted in Thwaites' Early Western Travels, 
vol. XIX. Cleveland, 1905. 

Bryant, W. What I Saw in California. New York, 

. ^^49. 
Irving, Washington. Astoria. 

Captain Bonneville. 

Cook, P. St. G. Scenes and Adventures in the U. S. 
Army. Philadelphia, 1857. 



THE END 



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